Evaluation task 3 - Who my thriller would be made by.

In my opinion, I would suggest that vertigo would be the type of company that would fund and make my film. I believe this for many reasons but my main reason is the fact that this would be my first film and vertigo would be more suited to making a low budget film rather than Warner Bros. who would only be interested in making a large scale film for a worldwide audience. The film that my group and I made was not designed to appeal to a worldwide audience but instead to fill a niche that would be appealing to those who appreciate small scale yet exciting thrillers. A film that vertigo have made that would be similar to the genre that myself and the rest of my group chose to portray would be The Business staring Danny Dyer as it is a low budget thriller that has the same sort of plot as my thriller.

The aim for my thriller would be to make more money in the cinemas than after realise. However vertigo would probably make more money outside of the cinema by DVD releases and pay per view on sky as advertising the film at a decent level would be extremely expensive which could cause the company losses on the film. Vertigo targets a specific audience of males, this would suit my thriller extremely well as the main target audience would be younger males rather than females. I think this would be the case as the main character is an attractive young woman and it is more suited to those of the male gender.

Task 2 - how does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents the social group of the working police. This is very common amongst thrillers and our thriller does conform to the stereotypical representation of the investigating units of the police. We chose to represent them as a swat team, this again is important in the way that it confroms to the stereotype of a thriller as many films of this genre have used swat teams and armed police. However we decided to represent this by giving the lead character of Jenna Smith a confliction to uncover the mystery of the photos for the benefit of society as many of the photos contain picture of the public unaware of the photos being taken. We also tried to challenge the stereotypical female ideal of staying at home looking after the kids and doing the housework. This is due to the fact that Jenna does not have any children or a partner which subverts the typical stereotype of a woman. The main male character however is more of a family man and is less authortitave than Jenna, this again subverts the stereotype as it is usually the other way round.

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

Task 1

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cast list

                                                                    Karis Aghiros

                                                                   Richard Hill

                                                                     Niall Green

Account of Shoot Day

How we started

We set about as a group, obtaining our props and putting the set together. The set was made up of wooden walls in the studio, which were covered in plastic bricks to give the impression that we were in an apartment and floor boards which were laid down on the floor. This was different from our original plan as we were going to have a room which was all white with no windows; however it turned out well for us as it gave the impression of a dingy, dirty flat and it also gave us more opportunities for shots that weren’t in the original plan. These extra shots that we created gave us a lot of extra material and helped us to capture a lot more or the action and the story that went hand in hand with our thriller production. Although these extra shots made us drift away from our original plan, it benefited us in the way that we were able to get more done and were able to created more suspense and action. Although the set was located in the studio, we felt as a group that this was far more practical than going out and finding a grotty flat somewhere in the middle of a town/city. Also it gave us the opportunity to create the set how we wanted to. To create the inside of the flat, and make it look as dirty and horrible as possible, we threw toilet paper on the floor and left newspapers scattered around the flat, we also used two tables, a mattress and a light bulb that hung from the ceiling.

Reasons for our Choices

We chose an attractive female character to entice the male audience to pay to watch the film. We also chose her style of clothing to be seductive yet at the same time to be professional and important, which is how we were planning to portray the lead female character. We also made her out to be strong willed and a leader which would appeal to the female audience who would enjoy watching a female in the lead role. We created a lot of tension and suspense around our lead female character which would appeal to both the male and female audience.

Props

In terms of props we used dirty coffee mugs, plates and cutlery to make it seem like the man who lived in the flat was not fussed about personal hygiene. We also had a mattress on the floor, and scattered newspaper and toilet paper around the floor to create the sense of a grotty, dirty flat. We also used handguns, torches and a shotgun to go along with the swat team. In my own opinion I felt that these props were vital to creating the sense of realism about the group of officers. Also hand guns conform to the genre of thriller. Finally the photos along the wall were crucial in portraying the story. We took all of the photos and developed them to make the audience believe that the man who took all of these photos is obsessive over his victims. The costumes that we used felt to us as a group that they were suitable for the swat team and for the lead character. The swat team were all dressed in black boiler suits which we felt were appropriate, and to make Jenna (lead character) seem official and professional we dressed her in a suit and tied her hair back.

Lighting

We used dark dingy lighting in the flat to go along with the feel of the flat being a dirty run down place for someone to live. We also used a pink light coming in from the window to create the feel that this flat was situated in an urbanised area. We felt that the pink light might be coming from a dodgy club opposite, again conforming to the feel that this flat is situated in a dodgy area.

Pre Shoot Day Shot List and Shoot Day Shot List

Pre Shoot Shot List

Outside the Flat

• 1. Mid-shot, shows the officers from the side of the door leaning against it
• 2. Wide shot of them from behind as they break in.
• 3. Mid-wide shot of officers running in.

Inside the Flat (hallway)

• 1. Long shot of the door from the inside, they break it down and rush in and past the camera. Jenna Smith walks in last.
• 2. Low angle shot of Jenna walking into the hallway
• 3. Mid shot taken from side of the door of officers running in.
• 4. Close up of Jenna Smith (dialogue)
• 5. Long shot from the hallway looking in on the open room, with photos in, she walks into shot towards the room.
• 6. Point of view shot of her looking at the open room, gets closer.
• 7. Close up of Jenna Smith’s reaction in the hall way

Inside the Room

• 1. Mid shot from center of the room looking at the door frame as she comes in, she flicks switch.
• 2. Long shot from center of the room looking at the door frame as she comes in, she flicks switch.
• 3. Point of view shot panning across the room.
• 4. Mid shot of the photo developing equipment
• 5. Mid shot of the photo developing equipment, pans across past it towards the photo wall.
• 6. Close up of empty bottles, shoes.
• 7. Wide shot from the wall’s Pov, Jenna walks to wall, guy walks behind her
• 8. Mid shot of the guy walking up behind her from door.
• 9. Mid shot from the side Jenna picking up photos, guy behind her. (dialogue?)
• 10. Over the shoulder shot of Jenna picking up the pile of photos, close up on photos.
• 11. Two shot of Jenna and guy, (dialogue)
• 12. Close up of Jenna flicking through photos
• 13. Close up of Jenna’s reaction (dialogue)

Shoot Day Shot List

• Wide shot take 1 – n/g fell over
• Wide shot take 2 – wrong line
• Wide shot take 3 – good with exception of wrong line and strolling out of shot
• Wide shot take 4 – wrong line & strolling out of shot
• Wide shot take 5 – GOOD
• Wide shot take 6 – GOOD, switch of actors
• Wide shot take 7 - strolling out of shot but good lines in the beginning
• Wide shot take 8 – GOOD, best take so far in terms of lines
• Wide shot take 9 – too quick response with actors but best take

• Mid shot – GOOD

• Zoomed shot of door take 1 – GOOD
• Zoomed shot of door take 2 – GOOD

• Low angle shot take 1 – shoes shown
• Low angle shot take 2 – GOOD

• Shot from side looking out of window take 1 – wrong
• Shot from side looking out of window take 2 – GOOD

• Zoom of gun take 1 – GOOD

• Shot of conversation from behind take 1 - GOOD
• Shot of conversation from behind take 2 – GOOD

• Close up of conversation from behind 1 – GOOD, nice focus but dark
• Close up of conversation from behind 2 – BETTER

• Pan across pictures take 1 – BEST ONE
• Pan across pictures take 2 – opening not great but good
• Pan across pictures take 3 – wrong pictures shown
• Pan across pictures take 4 – GOOD, especially sound in the shot
• Pan across pictures take 5 – jerky + too quick
• Pan across pictures take 6 – GOOD, quicker than others

• Shot showing pictures on table and being picked up 1 – very good
• Shot showing pictures on table and being picked up 2 – OK

• Shot from behind with dialogue take 1 – N/G
• Shot from behind with dialogue take 2 – GOOD
• Shot from behind with dialogue take 3 – GOOD, but late in camera movement
• Shot from behind with dialogue take 4 – N/G, too much headspace & change in position
• Shot from behind with dialogue take 5 – N/G ,late
• Shot from behind with dialogue take 6 – GOOD, but too much headspace
• Shot from behind with dialogue take 7 – BEST ONE

• Tracking Shot take 1 – N/G
• Tracking Shot take 2 –
• Tracking Shot take 3 – OK
• Tracking Shot take 4 – GOOD, little jerky
• Tracking Shot take 5 – GOOD, but jerky
• Tracking Shot take 6 – GOOD
• Tracking Shot take 7 – bad
• Tracking Shot take 8 – bad
• Tracking Shot take 9 – good
• Tracking Shot take 10 – alright
• Tracking Shot take 11 – GOOD
• Tracking Shot take 12 –  bad
• Tracking Shot take 13 – bad
• Tracking Shot take 14 – GOOD
• Tracking Shot take 15 –GOOD, but jerky

final powerpoint

Blind spot final

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Powerpoint of Thriller Idea and shot types

Blind spot

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Analysis of opening sequence

Rock N Rolla

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Preliminary Task

hi everybody, I am writing today about my preliminary task that my group and I had to do. I was in a group of four alongside Hannah, Rebecca and Laura. We filmed in the media suite and it worked well for our location as it fitted well with the acting and allowed our actors to create a dramatic entrance and a dramatic scene. I would say that I took an important role in the filming and took many of the shots of both the entrance and exit, and also throughout the scene. It would be fair to say that I was in control of the camera throughout most of the shoot and played a key role in achieving what was needed to create the shot.

Lighting

• we used a 3 tier lighting system, which provided us with hard lighting. This was key to our shoot as we wanted to create shadows, this gave our scene a more dramatic edge. The lighting system was succesful and effective in creating a dramatic edge in our shoot as it provided us with shadows and gave us a clear image of the two actors. However I believe that we could have used a dark lighting system to create more suspense and danger to the shoot.

Filming

• We started off making sure that the camera and tripod were set up correctly, this is important to the shot as it provides continuity throughout the shoot. We made sure that we were very strict in making sure that the tripod was level in each shot and that the shot was framed correctly each time in order to obtain a good series of shots in a limited space of time. In order to obtain the best shots we could in a limited space of time we made sure that the lighting equipment was not in the shot. This would have caused problems if it was due to the limitation of time and how we would have had to go over and re-do the shots more times than necessary. The angles we chose were important to creating the dramatic effect and excitment that we were trying to achieve with our preliminary task. Most importantly we made sure that the 180 degree rule was not broken at any me throughout the shoot. We constantly checked throughout the shoot to check if we had broken the 180 degree rule or not. Finally, the terminology could have been improved as we sometimes forgot what to say at what point, however by the end of the shoot we had been using all the right terminology at all the appropriate times.

Personally, I have learnt alot from my preliminary task in terms of practical film making. This has been down to the ways in which we made sure that all the angles were suitable for our shot and how we did not break the 180 degree rule.

Preliminary Task

Introduction to Video Camera blog post

• camera operations and functions - in the past two weeks we have been learning how to use the various features of the camera. We learnt about the timecode which is how long the camera had recorded for. We then went on to learn about how to white-balance the camera and how to focus the camera so that you are able to get a clear shot rather than it being fussy and distorted. After we had learnt all about focussing, timecode, white-balancing and aperture settings, we were shown how to use a tripod and what the benefits of using the tripod while filming are. After placing the camera on the tripod we had to bubble the tripod so that it is completely levelled. The advantages of using the tripod while filming are that you can get a lot more control on the camer and also you can get constant shots at a good position, whereas handheld there is a chance that the camera will be moving around during a shot. However with handheld you can also get amazing shots which make you feel as if you are there with the characters
• using the camera - after learning all about the camera, we moved onto different camera shots, this helped us to understand what shots to use to create what feeling and what setting. We put the rule of thirds into practice and made sure that we did not break the 180 degree rule as we had learnt about it in class. During the first filming session I unfortunately made the mistake of breaking the 180 degree rule and did not use the tripod when it was needed. Both of these mistakes meant that i came away with some poor quality film, this has been a learning curve and showed me what not to do while filming.

doctor who editing task

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/view/7iasqf

In the opening 6 seconds I used a voice over along with dramatic music to create suspense and tension for what was about to happen. Then I used a range of clips along with the same dramatic music to give the audience a sense of what happens during the series and what doctor who is about. The music and range of clips and sound effects ive used are effective in the way they give you a feel for the programme.

photography and image manipulation

Composition:

Photography brings a visual language that is universal in understanding. We must then understand its vocabulary which consists of shapes, textures, patterns, lines, colours, shade of light to dark and sharp to blurry images. Just as we must learn to arrange words in a coherent order in order to make sense when we write or speak, so too must we put visual elements together in an organized manner if our photographs are to convey their meaning clearly and vividly.

Composition means arrangement: the orderly putting together of parts to make a unified whole; composition through a personal, intuitive act. However, there are basic principles that govern the way visual elements behave and interact when you combine them inside the four borders of a photograph. Once we have sharpened our vision and grasped these basic ideas of principles, then we will have the potential for making our photographs more exciting and effective than ever before.

In one of our media lessons, we were able to use photoshop to combine two film posters and create our own version of the original poster. We learnt how to cut and combine photos aswell as change original photos and posters and make them our own. We used many tools including the stamp tool and the lasso tool. With these we succesfully created our own film poster.

Myself

Hello my name is William David Peter Edgley and I am 17 years old. I live in headley and brockham with my mum and my dad and i enjoy sport especially rugby, i play for scottish exiles and national academy and dorking mens 2nd XV. I came from Epsom College in surrey and i enjoy acoustic and indie music aswell as  drum and bass. I enjoy action, thriller and comedy films and occasionally watch horror films.