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.

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 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.

The list Screen Grabs

Memento Screen Grabs

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 8 Audience feedback and comment

Evaluation Question Five: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Alexandra (above) , 19, has just started an undergraduate degree in Media at university and has a part time job in an adversiting agency. She shares a flat with two friends, Ashley and Julia. They all enjoy drinking cocktails and shopping. Also,they go to the bar three to four times a week.

She watches dvds of FlashForward and Medical Investigations and loves thriller films and listens to 30 seconds to Mars. She has been dating Jude for a year. Her passion is to go back packing with Julia,Ashley and the rest of her friends.

Changes in light of feedback from roughcut

The clips needed to made shorter to fit the criteria of the film being no longer than two minutes. The sound levels had to changed so that it was not distorted.
We had to change the order of titles because we made a mistake by placing the names in the wrong heirachy of status within the cinematography industry. For example, the Producer has to be credited first because that is the person who hires the Director.
The fade effects were put in place to portray the eerie dark atmosphere of a psychological thriller film, which creates dramtic tension. Furthermore, this lead to more scene needed to be made darker to enhance the nature of the film.
Also, there was a dispute about the film's title, as some agreed that the 'The List' was not a clear meaning to our filming being about human cannibalism. Nevertheless, we decided to keep it because of the ambiguity surrounding how the film shows the routine and order of the character lifestyle being planned in as a list.
There was a disargeement amongst the staff, where some felt that the film was not ended in a way they approved with, on the other hand we argeed to keep our original idea because it was more dramatic than their idea.

Skills Audit: Soundtrack pro (making of composition)

The pictures above are showing the process of the sound for the final edit of the title sequence being created. We decided to stick with the main sounds which we demonstrated in the pitch. These were Appear Crystal 1,2,3; Drone Etheral; Footsteps heels cathedral walk and heavy water. However, we did add another sound which goes well. When the glass scene arrives, we have a sound which sounds like someone is rubbing the top of the glass. This makes the scene even more effective and it also succeeds in making the title sequence even more eerie. Melissa was in charge of putting the sound together and myself along with the rest of the group were giving advice and constructive criticism about what worked well and what didn't work so well. Overall, the group as a whole believe that it went smoothly and are very happy with the end result.

Skills Audit: Livetype (creation of titles)

The choice to use a serif font to show the formality of the human cannibalism. Also, the over- etching of the letters highlights the scribbles you tend to see on a list, as people can re-write something or re-think about there actions.
The medium shot of the frying pan on the stove creates the dominant nature of the fire being placed under the Producer's name as she is in charge of all the decision regarding the film and she decides who she hires in terms of Artist Director, Director and Sound Manager.



The specific skills of the film being used to see the film clearly without it being unclear to watch. Also, we learnt the layer effect as the font goes over the frying pan, whilst it is on the hot heat.




The juxtapositon of the black background against the white writing 'THE LIST' conveys boldness amongst the characters and the film's purpose, as human cannibalism is not common. This shows the character is an individualist, who believes in what she does and carries the courage to continue eating humans.

Skills Audit: Editing

This took the longest time as it took approximately 5 to 6 hours which included our own time and lesson time. We wanted it to be as perfect as we could get it. At the end of each clip we put a fade so they all fade in and out, making the title sequence smoother and more efficiently. Following this, we also made the clips darker than what the raw files were in order to keep with our theme of suspicion. Also for the glass scene, we made it go in slow motion to give the desired effect which was to make the audience wonder why blood is flowing through the water making it red. It was hard to get all the slips together in the right order and get them to flow together, making the title sequence easier for the audience to watch. The techniques and tools that we learned through the skills audit which we had done with the class previously really helped in allowing us to make the title sequence in the best way we could. although it was a challenge, we are more than happy with the result and it was the best feeling ever seeing the good result produced after so many hours have been channeled into the editing process of the title sequence.

make up tutorials

When doing the make up for the title sequence, we watched a few tutorials on youtube in order to get a feel for the type of make up we have to use in order to achieve our looks. These are some of the tutorials that we looked at and we used them to inspire our look to an extent, however, we were able to put out own twist on it as we al had a main idea for what we wanted to achieve and Yasmin and Melissa are very good with using make up.

This is when we were thinking of creating wounds for the dead body, however, we decided against it due to the fact that we didn't feel that it was necessary nor did we have enough time to get the wounds to look real and perfect. We looked at the tutorial below in order to see how we would do the psychopaths make up (played by Yasmin Phillips).

rough cut

final video THE LIST

Filming 24th march 2010

In this post, we will share a selection of pictures which we took during the filming of the ending piece for the title sequence on the 24th March 2010. The location is still Melissa's kitchen and pictures were taken by Kelly and Melissa.

This is Yasmin with all her make-up on which makes her look like the crazy and insane person she is meant to be acting like. For this, we made our own type of foundation which is very 'deathly' pale white and then black eyeshadow which went under the eyes makes her eyes seem sunk in and even more creepy. For the finishing touch, fake blood was put on her mouth and let it trickle down to her chin.

Kelly took part in the title sequence by being the dead body. This look was achieved by a few things. For one, pale foundation was put on the face as a base and then the same foundation used by Yasmin was put on, making the face look very white. Then Purple eyeshadow was applied onto the eyelids and under the eye for effect following the black eyeshadow which went further down under the eye, to finish off the 'dead' look. Fake blood was applied at the nose and left to trickle down to finish the effect.

This is a picture showing the main set of the filming session which was the dining table with the place mat set out. This was taken before the glass of bloody water was placed and the steak was on the plate as it was still cooking at the time.

This picture shows Melissa preparing the bloody water in the wine glass and Yasmin in all the make-up. Just before the picture was taken, the lighting was just being set up for a shot.

This is when Yasmin was filming the dead body (kelly) being slumped on to the table.

This is a close up version of what Kelly looked like when acting dead. We used cling-film on the table so we could smear fake blood over the table without staining the actual table.

It took a while for us to get the lighting just right for the shot because we didn't want the light bouncing off of the cling-film as it would ruin it.

The picture shows Kelly and Yasmin viewing the footage to make sure it is good and if it would need to be filmed again or not. Juliana and Melissa was also looking at the footage to see what the outcome was. All in all we were very please with the results and found it unnecessary to film it again.

This is a picture showing what the table as a whole looked like with the steak which here is representing human meat, the normal everyday place setting and the bloody water which in the light looks a lot like cranberry juice.

Pitch

This is the pitch that we presented to our teacher and the rest of the class, concerning our title sequence and what the actual film (if we ever made it) would be like. In the pitch, we have covered all we can think of, including a brief outline of what the film would be about, Location shots, institutional details, audience details, storyboards, risk assessment, production schedule, Mise en scene that will be used and Ideas about sound amongst other things.

Filming 15th march 2010

When we are filming the meat scenes and the first half of the table scene, we managed to get some pictures of us working on location and os some of our props that we are using. Here are a selection of photos. (photo's taken by Kelly Drury)

(left to right: Juliana and Yasmin) This was taken near the start of filming when Yasmin had just put the fake blood on her hands. Here they are discussing how the following part should be filmed, including the technique (e.g. making sure we were panning the right way like the storyboard points out)

This is Yasmin adjusting the light in order for it to focus on the wine glass which is placed on the work surface. This was done in order to keep the theme of darkness all around the object with just the spotlight focused on the object being filmed.

This is Yasmin showing us the fake blood on her hands. This is what she has had to do every time we shoot because she is the 'main character' which has a presence throughout the whole title sequence.

This is a quick shot of the meat cooking scene being about to take place. Here Melissa is holding the frying pan with the meat in waiting for it to cook enough for the next scene to take place.

This is another photo of Yasmin and this is just before yet another part of the meat scene was going to take place. Her hands were not just bloody from the fake blood, it was also the blood from the meat too!

Here is Yasmin playing the part of a murder well. The meat tenderiser was used in the scenes where we were shooting the meat preparation.

This is the chopping board and knife that we have been using throughout the shooting process. You can see the main stains on the board is the fake blood, however, there is also stains from the actual meat blood.

This is basically another shot where Yasmin is sorting out the equipment for the glass scene. This was at the start of our filming and Yasmin was adjusting the light and the camera so it focused on the wine glass.