Jade Evariste Question 7

JADE EVARISTE

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

Our preliminary task was a learning curve for all of us. We learnt about shot composition as in one shots the tripod is visible so we made sure that nothing else could be seen in the shots, it also made us aware of how the shot looks for our real film opening. We had 30 seconds of a character walking to her destination in our preliminary task which is a very long time and also very boring, this made us more aware of the length of the shot for our opening and when to cut a shot.
In our preliminary task we used an establishing shot to show where the characters were, this is something we used for our opening as it is important for the audience to know where the characters are in the shot to make it more natural. We also learnt about the importance of lightning from the preliminary task, as in some shot parts of the characters faces are unseen (Not from the bad quality). This made us consciously aware of the lighting in the shot and if everything can be seen. We learnt the importance of editing, as if the transitions are too out of the ordinary which makes the clip look unrealistic.
Through out our product we used continuity editing as there is a seen where the character is going into the lift with a credit fading in and when the lift opens back up it fades out. This something we learnt about while shooting our preliminary task.

Jade Evariste Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a range of technologies from Logic pro to blogger and so on. I used the logic pro to help produce our soundtrack as I had to alter the music so it would fit in with the opening.

 We also used imovie which was sometimes a challenge but we got used to and understood what to do when something went wrong, I learnt how to edit footage and how to add affects when cutting from one scene to the next. We used blogger to upload our video and to post what we were working on and how we were doing it I learnt how to upload post. We used YouTube to get some ideas on how we wanted the soundtrack to sound like and also what we wanted the opening to look like as we researched the opening of other thrillers and though if we would like to do something similar with our opening I learnt how to embed video’s so we could post them on the blog, also we used a mini DV camera to shot our opening which wasn’t too hard to use. Using these technologies showed me that anybody could make a film opening as once you know how to operate the programmes it is really easy to make the product you want to make.

Jade Evariste Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience with an interesting narrative, as not to many films have a similar plot. Also the main character is a female which would attract the women as they have something to relate to. We also made the character ambiguous even though she is killing people she is killing people who harm other people and throughout the film you would get to know her on a personal level and would be able to connect with her and wonder if she really is evil as previously presumed. We also used the generic mannerisms for the main character she is social awkward and has only one friend who she has an intense relationship with, the uniform she has to wear is generic when she is dealing with the dead body she puts on gloves to hid her DNA she doesn’t get caught. We also did not give away to much in the opening sequence as we leave the audience guessing what is happening as we used close-ups of her hands and objects she touches which makes her mysterious.

Jade Evariste Question 4

JADE EVARISTE

Who would be the audience for your media product?

We want to make our film to interest a variety of different audiences, so we tried to make it as universal as possible, by breaking some of the conventions of a stereotypical psychological thriller we hope it appeals to a new kind of audience.
The certificate for the film is a 15 as it will have some bad language and unsettling scenes, by making it a 15 we have made it available to a wider audience than by making the film an eighteen. Through the questionnaires we focused on females as they were the main contributors to the questionnaire, by making the lead character a female they would be able to relate to the character more, we also made it relate able for men by having the gory details. The average class was working class so we knew that we couldn’t put in anything to intellectual as they might not be able to understand something if we made references to higher educational subjects.

Jade Evariste Question 3

JADE EVARISTE 

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

Distribution is the process of moving a product from its manufacturing source to its customers. 
The main difference between independent and mainstream distribution is that mainstream distribution is normally international, and can be seen on a variety of cinema's while independent distribution mainly give films the independent cinema's or they go straight to DVD. 
I I feel like the film we made would be an independent like 'Anamorph' and 'Wicked' the 1998 film . I think this because our idea isn’t something which a wild variety of people may not like as it breaks some of the conventions of a typical psychological thrillers, also it has a different storyline compared to successful psychological thrillers.  I think that a good distributor for our film would be Entertainment film as they have had successful film releases like the 'Artist' and 'The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy', because they are an independent distributor it would be more cheaper than using a mainstream distributor. The film would be given to small chains of cinema's like the picture house as it appeals to a niche audience whic our film would appeal to.

Jade Evariste Question 2

JADE EVARISTE

How do you represent a particular social group?

 Pathologist are seen as dark and mysterious which is a stereotype of people who work with dead bodies.

We expanded the stereotype of the pathologists, by making a pathologist the killer we enforce the stereotype and represent  them as mysterious, creepy and someone who they should be weary of.

 By having a black young female as our killer, we break conventional stereotypes.

The stereotype for young girls is that they are obsessed with boys and make-up  some examples are Regina George in Mean Girls and Cher Horowitz in Clueless . By having the female character a killer we strip her of her innocence and make the audience feel sympathetic towards the character, further on in the film you realise that you can't help and that she is psychologically disturbed, we represent that social group as psychologically imbalanced and dangerous which is unconventional for teenage girls.
Using a black character for the role of the killer was unconventional as killers are generally white, by having a black killer we represent the social group as dangerous and suspicious.
We represented the police as hard working as they are constantly trying to figure out who the killer is, also they are represented as a bit dim witted as they sometimes have the suspect but oblivious to the clues infront of them.
We have represented the white British under class as being holagens, and bad parts of society as the killer wants to get rid of all the criminals in Britian. This is a conventional veiw of white British under class which can be seen in 'This is England 86' and 'The Football Factory'.
We represented Suffers of Mental health problems as deranged and emotionless, this is a stereotypical portrayal of mental health suffers which is seen in 'A beautiful mind' and 'Memento'   .

Jade Evariste Question 1

JADE EVARISTE

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

We focused on the thriller, genre specifically pyscological thrillers. The main conventions of pyschological thrillers are .
.First-person narrative, which makes the information given unreliable as they could lie to or mislead the the audience. Thriller audiences expect to be disorientated at some point in the film so will expect this convention to be at work.

 .Stream of consciousness - confusion on the part of the protagonists' between what is real or contrived 

.Distorted percepetion of reality

 .Latent fears

 Our media product challenges and develops conventions. The conventional psychopathic killer is usually between the ages of 40-50, male and white, see Silence Of The Lambs' Hannibal Lector, Mementos' Guy Pearce. Our psychopathic killer was young, female and black so we almost completely subverted the typical conventions.

Though we planned to use a male character we were unable to do so because of logistics we thought that it would be interesting to use an actress who was unconventional for the part. In doing so we open up the genre to potentially new viewers who can relate to the character and her experiences. We developed conventions by having the flash backs fade into white and then appearing which is a conventional use of flash backs. We used tense music that crescendos and minor notes which created a tense atmosphere when appropriate. We used a symbolic opening, hinting at themes and issues rather than explicitly stating them. We felt this type of opening would appeal to our target audience, who said they prefered to be challenged in this way. We are telling the story from the killers point if view which is generally unconventional within the psycological thriller genre as audiences prefer to identify with the heros rather than the villians.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

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

The improvement I have gone through since our preliminary task is immense. The transitions were greatly considered after problems with the preliminary task making the clips work together. The shot compositions were also much more thought out.

These two shots are next to each other in the video, creating continuity in the placement of the elevator, which makes it look much better.
In the preliminary, none of the shots are well planned, making it look messy and resulted in shots like this:

Not only is it bad quality, it also includes the tripod in the shot by accident, and this is not the only time that happens.

In the preliminary, we didn’t have any special shots, it was all very similar throughout the whole video, focussing more on dialogue, which turned out as a mistake, as we managed to miss out a very important clip which we couldn’t solve in editing. In D.N.A, there is no dialogue at all, and I (as I was the one filming) could focus more on the different shots and effects without worrying about getting the conversation correct, as well as using other equipment such as the tracks to get smoother shots.

As for editing the preliminary, we just stuck the different clips together in the necessary order and put a small music clip on it at one point; very dull, very simple, with a boring result. Since then, my editing has improved drastically. Because I did the entire clip editing for the media task, as well as the animating, I spent a long time learning how to do it, and improving my ability in creating the movie. I improved my filming, which I had previously been unable to do, as I didn’t have a great understanding of how to keep the camera steady, or how to frame the shots. I learnt how to do that as I filmed the movie, and my ability increased along with the clips.

As I edited, I spent a lot of time improving my skills in clip, frame, music and title editing, helped along by the importance of working towards a deadline, so I had to apply my knowledge and expand on it in order to create a good title sequence by the arrival of the deadline. Being introduced to new technologies helped, like Adobe After Effects, so that I wasn’t left to create a simple opening with pre-set titles.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the Beginning: The very first technology I learned how to use was Prezi, which I could use as a way to present my findings on Thrillers, among other things. It’s a new and aesthetically pleasing way to create a presentation, and I have found it to be useful. The second way to present my findings is using Blogger, which is easier and slightly more gradual than a single presentation, though less visually exciting as Prezi can be. However, it still provides the necessary services to include videos, pictures and links. I can utilise these to create an effective presentation, which has been useful. Then there is Microsoft Excel, which I learnt how to use to create charts of various types to present information in a visually interesting way. I also got a start to the use of the Mini DV Camera during the making of the preliminary, but not much.

During Production: As the camera operator, I managed to get a proper knowledge of how to operate the Mini DV Camera and each of its functions. It is easily portable and high-quality, and capable of filming close-ups clearly, which was useful for the close-up shots. It also created smooth moving shots, which I used during filming to create interesting close-up tracking shots. Alongside the camera, I also learned how to use a tripod and tracks to create the shots I required. A tripod helped me keep a steady shot instead of an unsteady one from being held. It also helped make moving shots smoother, though the tracks were the best for a smooth tracking shot which was important during the first flashback. Mobile phones also became important during production, for both communication between each person in the group, and as part of filming, as it appeared in the finished product.

Post Production: Editing the movie required using iMovie so that I could put the required clips together. I had no previous experience using it, but it was easy to understand and use, as well as produce a pleasing result. I also used Adobe After Effects in order to animate the Thriller title at the end of the product, as well as overlap the animated title and the beginning clip for the “Distributor”. It was difficult to use at first but incredibly handy, as it has the ability to merge clips and titles for interesting title sequences. Last of all, I learnt how to use Garage Band, and to some extent Logic Pro while assisting the composer in creating music to add onto the clips. It can be complicated technology, but it helped to create the atmospheric music, and can create any sound I choose.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I used visual effects to heighten interest and create an aura of mystery which would draw the audience in and hope for more, including flash-backs allude to the story somewhat. It leaves the audience curious to know the full story. The music used was for a haunting atmosphere which lulls the audience into a false sense of security, until the more aggressive music kicks in and surprises them, keeping them interested. Leaving them without knowing what to expect is enthralling, which is as a thriller should be. The frequent close-ups of the killer’s hands and the objects she’s holding also tell a bit of a story, leaving the audience guessing the rest.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

We have chosen to rate our movie as a 15, or ‘R’ rated in America, which means that it is suitable for young adults, due to the involvement of death, gore and violence. This targets older audiences who are more likely to be interested in these traits. We created a questionnaire to see who to target as our audience. The results showed us that we should aim it towards females (Having a female main character appeals to them), but otherwise kept it gender neutral.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I have a couple of choices of institutions for the thriller, though we came up with our own institution to put on the title sequence; Soevil Productions, a clever combination of each of our surnames to create one name. However, the existing institutes I have thought of are Universal Studios and Summit Entertainment, which are the two most suitable companies..

Universal Studios is one of the largest mainstream companies which has distributed many famous movies such as Frankenstein, The Railway Children and ET. It is a distributor which takes all sorts of Genres, and spreads movies world-wide. This would be the best for our Thriller; however I believe the thriller is not mainstream enough to be distributed by Universal Studios.

So the better idea is Summit Entertainment. Summit Entertainment has distributed Thrillers in the past, some of which even similar to our own Thriller. It also has famous films of other Genres, such as Twilight, which means it is very well known, and would be suitable for our Thriller.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group in the thriller is females. The killer is a woman; she is cunning, cool and collected, and very dangerous. Often, movies represent women as supporting characters, cheering on the main protagonist – a man – from the side lines, only assisting, not doing anything on her own. In my thriller, the main protagonist is a woman, who knows what she’s doing and works alone (for the most part). She is presented in a typically manly fashion in these respects, and is not shown to be a sex object, which is what women are in almost all films, regardless of genre or the women’s role in them.

The second main group in the thriller is the pathologist; that is what the main character is. usually represented as supporting characters (again) who assist the police, they are useful and knowledgeable in the human body. The killer, despite working so closely to the police, is completely against them, using her knowledge for bad, and working in the shadows, away from the police's unsuspecting eyes.

Rachel Iliffe - Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

First, the plot and how the sequence sets the scene for the rest of the story. I wanted something which would be as gripping as a thriller should, but which would challenge the conventions of typical Thriller plots. The first of those being the representation of the killer as the protagonist, or rather, a sympathetic antagonist; We see the film from the point of view of the killer, her plots and thoughts, and how the police struggle to catch her. Second, as you can read in the treatment, the police are presented in a bad light, failing to find her, even by the end. Then there’s the common enemy between the police and the killer. The terrorist in the city is a bad person, but he also the one who causes our protagonist to realise the error of her ways and be consumed by guilt, so he is there as a tool.

Secondly, the characters. As mentioned, our protagonist is a killer, instead of being part of the police force, which already makes her an unconventional character. She’s also a morgue worker, which is someone who would be less likely to be suspected, despite her knowledge of the human body and access to bodies already deceased, which is why I chose that profession for her. The convention I do use, and develop upon, the most common one, is the quietly insane trope. She is deluded into thinking she’s doing the right thing- it is common, for insane people, and often for completely sane people, to think this- but the insanity is not as easily noticeable while we see the events from her perspective. A lot of the time, she looks like a normal person.

Third, the title of the movie. ‘D.N.A’, though cliché, was chosen for a number of reasons. Primarily, it is the main tool in the killer’s plans to hide her own tracks under a trail of confusion. Furthermore,  further than being an acronym for “Deoxyribonucleic Acid”, it could also have another meaning underneath it. I toyed with other ideas for what D.N.A could stand for, a couple of ideas being “Dead;  Not Alive” in reference to the deceased murderers.

Fourth, the title fonts and animations. The titles of the movie are all in red, for its connection to blood; blood which the main protagonist collects from dead bodies. The animations which I used to present them have them floating across the screen, as though avoiding being seen by the killer as she makes her way to her work area and goes about doing her work, among other things. At the end, the title ‘D.N.A’ flickers on the screen. I chose it to be a representation of her sanity, and its unstable ways.

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

I defiantly feel that we needed the preliminary task to get to grips with everything like the filming and editing.

how we progressed in filming

To the best of our abiltiy we tried to control the shadow and light in our opening as much as we could, and so any shadows were intended in order to display the conflict of the narrative. however some of the shadow and light were not planned but i do think it gave a more suspicious side to emmabelle's character.

how we progressed in editing

for editing i feel like we came together as more of team then individuals , or pairs as some of us were ill through the preliminary task .also we knew more about the softwear we were using so we could put more effects like fades into our product which gave it a finishing touch ,and it made it look more offical.  

also the use of objects not needing to be in the shot was very muh visable for example the tripod was left in the shot and jackets that weren't supposed to be there. also the difference in camera quailty is very visable if you see in the permlinary the camera is all distornted and you can just make out rachael however if you look at the thriller shot the camera quailty is 10x better then the prelim task.

In the preliminary, we didn’t have any special shots, it was all very similar throughout the whole video, focussing more on dialogue, which turned out as a mistake, as we managed to miss out a very important clip which we couldn’t solve in editing. In D.N.A, there is no dialogue at all, which turned out for the best although there is obvisouly dialouge throughtout the rest of the film, the key thing in our thriller was the editing it played a very big part and i feel that all 3 of us have deffinatly have developed our skills in the editing department.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the beginning

• Blogger: I think that blogger was one of the main things that we used in presenting our research and ideas. I have never used a blog before so this was a new experience for me. However i definatly think that i have gained a new way of communicating my research.
• Microsoft Excel: We used this to total the results from our audience research. I learnt how to construct a pie chart so that the results were more visually appealing on our blog and easy to understand.

Production:

• Mini DV Camera: The HD quality on these cameras were great for close ups aswell as tracking shots.:i learned to use a camera properly as in our prelimary task i had trouble shooting.  
• Tracks/Tripods: i used a tripod for the first time to make the shots steadier.

what we did and what I gained

• iMovie11: as i hardly had any skills to begin with my iMovie skills definitely developed over the post-production stage. I learnt how to overlap clips , to create new effects and over lay sound.
• Garage Band: our composer  wanted to create her own music as a pose to downloading a soundtrack from the itunes or a music website , however she later decided that using a soundtrack from itunes which personaly i think fits very well with the scenes

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

AUDIENCE  :

Audience There are a range different types of audience that out product could attract. For example, the fact that it mainly focuses on only one women. The female in question  is  tall,black , wears glasses (sterostyping that she's smart) , has an hour glass figure which appeals to most males. she is 26 and has a forensic science degree from the universtiy of cambridge so she is smart, it also shows that she's comfertable disecting bodies (making her an ideal killer). she is a pathologist in area of work which makes her less likely to suspect.
this type of character would appeal to the likes of
teenage girls becuase the main characters a girl and could have some relation to he charcter.also this might attract girls because of the fact its a thriller there expected to jump , they could take there boyfriends for comfort which ties in with it also attracting males. Aso the character is a very strong character and has very little time because her 'work' is alway busy so the character can relate to some types of people however some can dislike the character as she's constantly at work and is a strong character , some men dont like that in women.

   

Our thriller has certain themes of the tv show Body Of Proof  which again has a main women in it that appeals to simialar audience to our thriller.




<----------- the main character is a pathologist like our character in our thriller.




we did a questionaire for our audience research  and our film attracted 16-18 year olds I think that this is because the film its self is certificated 15  which limits us to a smaller range of audience but at the same time means that because of the age ,teenagers like to go to the cinema so our film will be viewed alot by this age area.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

although it has attracted 16-18 year oldswe have decided to set the certificate an age rating of 15 as it will have some bad language and unsettling scenes. Through the questionnaires we focused on females as they were the main gender used in our thriller the questionare refelected  that by making the lead character a female they would be able to relate to the character more. The majoprtiy of people that were questioned were in working class so we knew that it wouldnt be a problem targeting the film with a certificate 15 because the working class have money to see the fim or buy it.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In our product we decided to come up with a fake distribution company called SOEVIL PROUDUCTIONS I personaly came up with the name as the first 2 letters in our surname create this name however  if our film was to be distributed by a media institution, I think it would be distributed by a mainstream company preferabily in amreica as more would see it as more a well known . I think that because of the type of thriller we have made it would appeal to big distributors and producers.

I believe that a company like SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT would be a good distributor to use for this film. They have distributed other thrillers like ‘knowing ’which involve like  our product hidden things like dates and meanings  Not only this, but SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT' has worked on big movies like 'The Twilight Saga' , 'Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2' and the action thriller 'The Dark Knight'. so this company is very well known. i belive that they would be a good distributer becuase ,it beingsuch a well known company it gains alot of money ,so the thriller can be distributed by supermarkets , or shops like HMV  it could also be sent to cinemas top be screened or it can be posted directly to your door from websites like play.com and amazon.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group that is used in our media product is pathologist (a person who spesializes in autopsy)

The sterotype of a patholoist is normally the good character who works with the police and fbi, csi and doctors.

we went against the sterotype and made the character unconvential as she is the bad character. so the police can never suspect her as she is sterotyped as good and she has scientific skills so she can easy cover up her murders.she works in a lab with other people so she is under constant watch from her bosses.

Anorher social group that is constantly included in our thriller is the police , there is a big squad of policemen who are on a constant search for the ''killer''. 

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

Narrative

the narrative was quite difficult for the audience to get to grips with , for example with the twist and turns to the story is you never really know who the killer is it reminded me of an episode of the TV drama criminal minds where you never really know whats going on until the end.

treatment

D.N.A Treatment

Guy Parker, a morgue worker, harbours a dark secret. He kills criminals, and has been for years. However, he plants the DNA of the dead bodies he recieves in the morgue onto those he kills, thus creating an unsolvable mystery in order to prove that the police are useless. However, after killing a kidnapper, he learns that the man wasn't just a kidnapper; he was also a bomb specialist. This kidnapper/bomb specialist left a bomb in the middle of a crowded city, but they don't know where, or how to disarm it. The bomb destructs and Parker is caught in the blast. Injured, he stumbles back to the morgue, horrified by what he'd done. By killing one criminal, he'd killed a hundred innocents. This drives him insane and he leaves the police a message telling them where to find their killer, himself. By the time they arrive, he has a knife through his heart...

...And the DNA of a long-dead person on the handle.

Throughout the film, you follow both the Police investigation and Guy Parker's murders. While you do not know everything Guy Parker is doing, you know enough to see how far the police are getting in their investigation.

our treatment gives and hides things to the reader showing that the treatment even hides things just like the film.

Characterisation

Like the narrative, we used the sense of hidden meanings or things

you never see all of the character until the lab scene to create a sense of secrecy about her , it make the audience suspicious because the stereotype for killers is normally a man

Title

the title of our production like our narration has a hidden meaning to it just like the murders and killer does 

D.N.A :in its scientific form its Deoxyribonucleic acid however in our product it means DEAD NOR ALIVE   to keep the audience guessing and wondering 

our production did not challenge the ways of a normal thriller it kept to the ''guidelines'' of a thriller.
use
we used the ''guidelines'' of a thriller because if we didnt we would be risking not appealing to audience, because we can tell what sort of thrillers work and what thrillers dont from research.