EVALUATION: Question 5 - Who would be the audience for your media product.

Naomi, is a 18 year old girl, who does childcare training and wants to become a social worker. She likes fashion and reading horror books and enjoys books and movies to do with vampires. Listens to r'n'b, garage and rock. She likes politics. Her bag contains a purse, make-up bag, tissues, toiletrees, brush, ID card, driving liscence, oyster card, ipod and a blackberry.

EVALUATION: Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups

With eyes being the "windows to the soul" i have picked two stills - one from our title sequence and one from the film "Hannibal Lecter" dircted by Thomas Harris. The picture of yasmins eyes compearted to the hannibal lecters eyes shows the psycotic side to the characters. The blood smudged on yasmins face compared with the red eyes of the hannibal lecters eyes represents the blood, murder and gore of the films.

Skills audit: filming and editing preliminary match cut exercise

For our second filming practice we filmed a match-cut exercise. The film started myself and Julie. To film this scene, we wanted to add more camera shots other then the required shots: the match cut, 180 degree rule and dialogue. So when we come to filming we used a over the shoulder shot where the camera focuses on Julie and the tilt both high and low during the dialogue. I'm shown to be the one with the power in this clip so the high tilt gives the idea of authority and power to me and also a little effect of menace to show that i shouldn't be double crossed or messed with. We also used low tilt for Julie, showing that she is the vulnerable and weak one in this situation. We also added a variety of different shots such as long shots, wide shots and medium close ups. The 180 degree rule was used on the focus of me to show the conversation between me a Julie. Our match cut was right at the start of the clip where Julie opens the door and enters the room.

Evaluation Question 8 Response: Audience Feedback and Comment

With the responses we had from the audience, we used some of their main words to create a wordle blog to create a connotation of all the words the film was described as in the feedback for our thriller opening scene. With the film's genre being a pyshcological thriller, the words ' dark', 'spooky', ' scary' were the reactions we was expecting and hoped for.

The responses that the film had received were positive:

The Quotes

Mica, 17, 'WOW! it was good and I liked the scene with the water in the glass changing from still to blood.'

Jason, 16, 'Yeah! I liked the gory theme of the film- great thriller.'

Jasmine, 17, 'It left a creepy crunch in my mouth! Eek!

Daisy,17, 'It was bloody great.'

Final edit of livetype and sound filming practice

For our first filming exercise, we filmed a "bag swap" scene staring Kelly and Julie. This was the first lesson we was introduced to LiveType. We was shown how to use it to add titles to our video. We also had our first experience in using the software to create a soundtrack to add to our video using our previous experience and knowledge from out SoundTrack Pro tutorial. I made the sound track for this film with the inspiration from a 'James Bond' as i wanted the film to have a spy feeling to the film and the group agreed this would be a good genre for the soundtrack as it would match the bag swap theme of the film.

Evaluation Question Two: How does your media product represent social groups?

The characters portrayed by Jodie Foster, Meg and Kirsten Stewart, Sarah being pyschological tortured by the decision to divorce her husband Stephen who had an affair, as they are hiding in a room panicking in fear for their lives. Whereas, Yasmin's character is not hiding from anyone as she is in her kitchen, where she cooks humans.

The cannibal in 'The List' is inflicting the pain on her victims that she kills and eats, as she eats humans only.
Forest Whitaker’s character, Burnham, saves Sarah’s life as she would have died from a lack of sugar because she is diabetic.
The similarities of Yasmin’s character and Jared Leto’s character, Junior all have the psychological intent to kill, as she kills a girl from no reason. However, Junior gets killed by Raoul, who shoots him in the eye when he attempts to leave the house and stop the operation.
Junior and Yasmin’s character have ideas of inflicting pain as Junior invades Meg’s house. On the other hand, Yasmin’s character seeks revenge by the idea of cannibalism, which is how she responds to people who have angered her.
The similarity is both films have white middle class women. Nevertheless, the difference is Sarah in ‘Panic Room’ is vulnerable as she is hiding in a room from a drug addict. In ‘The List’ Yasmin’s character is not going to be victimised by humans, therefore she takes revenge personal by eating humans.

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

During the preliminary exercise, the sound which we made for it was very basic throughout with the same types of sound being played all the way through the scene. This wasn't particularly great because it created a sound which suited what we wanted to achieve which was spy theme (following inspiration of something like the James Bond films) however, the sound wasn't developed to its full potential, making the visuals not as gripping for the audience. Also we only used non-digetic sound which meant that there was no variety of skills used when producing the sound. We think that our skills in producing sound had developed and improved extensively. For the title sequence, we created a detailed soundtrack to go on it, having a variety of sounds featuring in it. A few examples include Appear Crystal 1, 2, 3; Drone Etheral, Footsteps heels, Cathedral walk, Heavy Water and Screams. We also had them featuring at the appropriate times, one example being that at the glass scene (show above) we have the sound of a glass being rubbed at the top rim which suits what is happening at the visuals perfectly. What also shows that we had improved the sound and developed our skills is that we had a mixture of both digetic and non-digetic sounds within the title sequence. While having out non-digetic sound in order to create the mood and tone of the film, we also made sure that the necessary digetic sounds was put in. This was everything from the burning of the butter in the pan and the sharpening of the knives to the turning on of the cooker. This shows that as a group, we have progressed well when it came to the sound skills and therefore has made our title sequence all the more better.
Mise en scene was one thing which we had developed and progressed in the most for very simple reasons. For the preliminary exercise we didn't really take much attention in terms of clothing, props or the background location. We chose the location of the gardens opposite the college on City Road but we didn't make sure that the location was perfect or that any bystanders were in the shots. The only props we took into account were the briefcases because that was what the scene was all about. However, we payed a lot of attention to the mise en scene for the title sequence in order to achieve the visuals that we wanted and theme of the film. This included lots of props such as knives, wine glass, fake blood and steak. The location which was Melissa's kitchen was key for the whole title sequence as you couldn't really have a psychotic woman cooking and eating a person in a bathroom as that would not be a good visual. Also the make-up of both characters were one in order to make the characters fit in with their profile as much as possible.

When it comes to filming and editing, we have improved our technique on a big scale. For example, if you see the first video on this post, it shows a little clip from our preliminary filming exercise and there are two things wrong with it. For one, the second part of the match cut is much too long and the second thing is that the handheld camera is a tiny bit shaky when it was following Kelly walking. This had been taken on board and enabled us to improve and develop our skills for the final title sequence. This becomes apparent in the 'glass scene' of our title sequence which is shown in video 3 of this blog post. The match cuts in this part are done more smoothly and fit in with each other perfectly. Following this, the shots are quite short so it keeps the audience captured throughout the whole scene. Following this, we done most of the filming on a tripod so there was no way in which the camera could shake, making the filming of a better quality.

Overall, by looking back at our preliminary task and comparing it with our final title sequence, we have seen how we have progressed from the the beginning of the coursework stage to the end and how we have all developed our skills into producing a much better piece of work.

EVALUATION Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This voiceover is the spoken voice of Juliana Amaa explaining what we did as we filmed, the prorams we used on the Apple Mac to make the film's titles, score, additional lighting and filming. For example, the program Livetype enable us to make a font that related our film genre being a pyschological thrilller.

Detailed analysis of Thriller Clip analysed in class

In "What Lies Beneath" most of the shots are from Claire's point of view. There is a high angle shot of Claire walking up the stairs to show that she's vulnerable and going to be the weak character in this scene. There is also a close up of the necklace on her neck to show it will be and important aspect in this scene. Straight after this close up we see a long shot of the bathroom so we link the necklace to the bathroom then a panning shot of the phone. We then see her walk into the bedroom as puts on a white dressing gown over her white dress. The white clothes signify her innocence in this scene. We then see a close up of the phone to show the importance the phone plays as we see that Norman didn't call the emergency services. There are a few match-cuts throughout the fighting sequence where Claire is struggling to get away and when she's running down the stairs. There is a Low angle shot of her when she is crawling on the floor to show he vunrability with a high angle shot of Norman on the stairs looking down on Claire to show his power and that he's in control in this situation. There is a close up of Claire's face when she's on the floor, which makes the camera look like its on the floor, to show her facial expression as she struggles to get away. This is followed by a high angle shot of Norman standing over her but the camera returns to a normal mid shot of him when he's admitting what he done. There is a high angle shot of him carrying Claire in to the bathroom to enhance the menace of what he is doing. This is followed by a birds eye view of the bathroom to show him putting Claire in the bath tub.

How is suspence created in the film you watched in class?

In class, we watched the supernatural thriller "What Lies Beneath" directed by Robert Zemeckis. The plot of the film is about a couple who experience a strange haunting that slowly uncovers secrets about there pasts. Suspense is created in the film by using false plateau. False plateau is when the audience think something is going to happen but it doesn't happen. A good example of this would be when Claire walks up the stairs and you expect something to happen or someone to be waiting for her, and she walks into the bathroom with the shower running and u would asume that theres someone in the bathroom.

EVALUATON question one

i think that the titles of our sequence and that of the seven was very similar because they had the same text and they were both handwritten script.

all of the actual images are close ups and this is very improtant when creating thrillers because it leaves alot to the imadgination. both are quite dark with the lighting letting the audiance know that it isnt some happy go lucky type movie.

News and current affairs events

The story in the news that caught my attention this week was the execution of Zheng Minsheng who stabbed eight young children to death and injuring five other children at a primary school on the 23rd of March. He carried out the attack after breaking up with a girlfriend. I think the whole story of this attack would make a intresting pyscological thriller.







Another story that i found intresting was the migrants in Mexico that are facing a major human rights crisis. The human rights group said officials ignored or even played a part in the rape, kidnap, and murder of migrants, often carried out by criminal gangs. Tens of thousands of Central American migrants pass through Mexico every year to try to reach the US and find work.

EVALUATION question 8 comments and feedback

i think we had a lot of very positive feedback and the thriller opining actually shocked and even scared some of its audience witch was our intention.

when showing our teachers our rough cut some of the teachers made a comment that they did not think that some people would understand the story line but thankfully after the cinema screening everyone knew what was going on and wasn't confused by the cannibal idea.

List of Thriller sub-genres - which inspires you at the moment and why?

List of Thriller sub-genres:

Action thriller
Conspiracy thriller
Crime thriller
Disaster thriller
Drama thriller
Horror thriller
Erotic thriller
Legal thriller
Medical thriller
Political thriller
Psychological thriller
Spy thriller (also a subgenre of spy fiction)
Techno-thriller
Religious thriller

The thriller sub-genre that inspired me, before the actual film of our thriller, was the psychological thriller as i think this would be a great sub-genre for our film as we can use it to make the thriller quite scary and twisted.

Evaluation Question 8 Response: Audience Feedback and Comment

I used wordle (in a seperate blog) blog to create a connotation of all the words the film was described in feedback for the film. This relates to the flm's genre being a pyshcological thriller, which was described as ' dark', 'spooky', ' scary'.

The responses that the film had received were positive.

The Quotes

Mica, 17, 'WOW! it was good and I liked the scene with the water in the glass changing from still to blood.'

Jason, 16, 'Yeah! I liked the gory theme of the film- great thriller.'

Jasmine, 17, 'It left a creepy crunch in my mouth! Eek!

Daisy,17, 'It was bloody great.'

EVALUATION Question 8 - Audience feedback and comment (commentary)

This in relation to the previous blog post with the picture that represents the main words that we got during the feedback of our title sequence, I had got a general idea of what the audience thought of the title sequence as a whole. The main words that people used when they were asked to describe the title sequence was 'scary', 'gory', 'creepy' and 'mysterious'. This tells me that the title sequence has had the desired effect that we wanted to achieve. The main point that we first had which was that the film is meant to be a horror/psychological thriller. I can therefore come to the conclusion that the feedback was good and we as a group had achieved the type of thriller genre that we wanted to achieve.

EVALUATION Question 3&4: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/ address your audience?

How we would launch our low budget student film.

The type of media we would use would be the world of the internet which would include websites such as youtube, vimeo and facebook amongst other social networking sites, making the thriller film go viral.

Furthermore, for the types of magazines which could promote the film includes empire, total film , vertigo, Little White Lies and maybe even BFI sight and sound as they all support independent films which would include ours. In addition, other newspapers and magazines which could help promote our film are bright lights, film threat and kamera because they specialise within the independent film industry.

We think that the film maker mag would help give us pointers on how to do effective promotion and distribution for our film if we were stuck for ideas.

For the type of cinema's that could show our film (under the assumption that it was successful when shown at th

e screen on the green in Angel) would be other independent cinema's such as The Curzon which has many outlets such as the one in Soho (see below).

Another cinema which could have been the Greenwich picturehouse which specialises in independent films and has many other outlets apart from the one situated in Greenwich. These are just some of the cinema's where the film could be shown. We think that our film would be most suited to independent cinema's rather than mainstream cinemas such as Odeon, Vue and Cineworld because it is such a low budget film and it would need a guaranteed big gross profit to make it at those kind of cinemas.

This student film that i found was made for a A level project on a very low budget and has had 4,865 hits on youtube so far. youtube has been used to show people globally his short film and with more hits the more people are likely to watch it.

i think like this film my film would also be released onto you tube and on to vimeo , from the post a few people will see it and hopefully more , by word of mouth my thriller opening will be seen by many more people globally and will grow in popularity . through the cinema screening that we had at the screen on the green more students around the college saw the film and told there parents or friends about the film and it finds new ways to be talked about and grow in popularity.

EVALUATION question two

the still that i have chosen is of me playing the phyco cannibal killer , i found another still from the film Hannibal of the killer Hannibal lecter who was also a cannibal, what i found most interesting was how both of the shots have a main focus on the eyes showing the audience that it is a human that is killing witch is a lot more shocking the if the murderer was just an animal .

the differences between the two characters is that one is male and one is female . with our film we decided to make the killer a female because conventionally the killer in horror or thriller films are usually male and to have a female character in some ways can be more unexpected and give a new edge to the film.

EVALUATION question five

megan 19 , studying for an art degree , works part time in a bar , shops in camden market for vintage clothes loves underground films.

EVALUATION Question two - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here are the two characters that appear in our title sequence which is the psychotic lady, played by Yasmin and the dead body which was played by myself. However, these characters had been created with the inspiration of other things such as well known movies and the characters within them.

For the character of the psychotic lady, there were a few characters from other movies which we took inspiration from to create our own unique character. One of them was the Hannibal Lector who is also a cannibal in the film. The way he is portrayed in the film as a cannibalistic psychotic person is what we used in order to try and make out character as 'realistic' as we could. However, the main and most obvious difference between the two characters is the fact that our character is a woman rather than a man which breaks the norm of cannibals in films as the main roles for women in thriller movies is the 'bunny boiler'. A classic example of this is Alex Forrest from the thriller called "Fatal Attraction'. (images left to right: Hannibal Lector and Alex Forrest)

The second main character in the title sequence is the dead body. However, there was no character from another film in which we aspired to as there was no particular characteristic that had to be portrayed apart from the fact that the character is dead.

Question five - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Mitchell, 19 is a horror and thriller film fanatic who has just finished college and is getting ready for university to study film and photography. He lives with his best friend and loves to go to rock and metal concerts. He listens to everything from Paramore to Slipknot and he often hangs out with friends in Camden, London. He shops in places such as Topman, H&M and Criminal Damage.

Here is what you would normally find in his bag:

Amongst other things such as his ID card, Oyster card, bank card and so on.

The list Screen Grabs

Memento Screen Grabs

Memento - Opening Sequence

One film that really inspired the opening sequence of our thriller film was the psychological thriller film "Memento" written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Evaluation Question One: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We would expect it to contain an element of suspense or thrill.
We expect to see a type of thriller opening for example a discrete opening, the titles on a plain background followed by the narrative opening. As in our thiller opening we used the techinique of titles on plain background by the narrative opening as the water gradually turns to blood.
In the our thriller opening, we have an instutional ident at the beginning stating 'A Candi Studio', which recognises the company we used to make the film.
Our group decided to keep to the conventions of having the instutional ident at the beginning because it was traditionally done by all directors, however the director Michael Mann decides to do it at the end of his film.
We expect to see vast amounts of close ups, wide shots, extreme wide shots. For example, in our thriller opening it starts with a wide shot of Yasmin's finger turning the radio off. Also, a close up shot of the blue flame on the cooker.
The score is sinster to build up the ethos of a slow seduction film,as the pitch is high and serious to convey the intensity of the film's plot.
We used the wide shot to introduce the setting of the film in the kitchen,as it relates to the cannabal cooking and empathasises the culinary aspect of killing and cooking humans.

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

In the opening of many thrillers, you would expect the opening sequence to contain suspense or thrill to catch the audiences attention. This would also be to set the tone and genre of the film e.g if the film is meant to confuse the audience and leave them thinking about whats going to happen next, then suspense would be used. Our opening contains more suspense then thrill as out aim was to confuse the audience and leave them to link the story together and workout the plot and storyline. In many starting sequences, you would expect to see the title and the credits of the people who produced and made the film but this ain't always the case e.g the director Michael Mann has never used titles and credits at the start of any of his films, he always leaves them to the end. In our groups opening sequence, we made our titles very sketchy with a hand written effect to add meaning to out title as the film is called "The List" and the story behind it involves a handwritten list of names in a notebook. With the titles, you would expect to see the institutional ident of the film. Our Openings institutional ident was "Candi Studios". Music is a main aspect in thriller opening sequences as they are used to draw the audience in. My groups opening sequence uses music effectively to create suspense and build it up to catch the audiences attention. Most opening sequences either introduces the location of the main character or both. The main character is introduced in the start of our thriller as it was necessary to introduce the story and bring more suspense to the storyline of the opening sequence. Slow seduction or the quick thrill structure is used at the start of thrillers to create the suspense needed for the starting sequence. Our film uses both effects as it slowly builds up the thrill but also at the ending, of the opening sequence, there is a quick thrill jolt to scare the audience.

EVALUATION: question 8 Audience feedback and comment