Evaluation question 7

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

The purpose of my preliminary task was to become familiar with the equipment we would be using, getting an understanding of many times it takes to get a show right, and overall to practise filming. The equipment involved was a camera, tripod and memory stick.

During my preliminary task i learnt how difficulites may occur during filming. My group and I and major issues with the tripod. When we tried to screw the camera onto the tripod, it would not sit comfortable and was on a slant, also when trying to pan a shot the camera would shake. Therefor we filmed the preliminary task using a handheld camera approach. We edited the preliminary task on final cut pro x, this was a new software to all of us and we only used the basic tools such as: blade, and dragging clips in. The feedback from the preliminary task outlined that our filming was unstable and shakey, therefor we should have practised more with the tripod and worked out how to install the camera on to it properly.

The skills i picked up when producing my preliminary task. I learnt the basics of final cut pro x when editing the footage we had and cropping out the shots that were of bad quality, i also learnt how to playback what i had filmed on the camera, this allowed me to see how the shot went and if we needed to re film it or adjust anything during the clip. The preliminary task also gave our group a chance to understand the roles each of us had when filming. Bettie was the camera man in the preliminary task, but due to the poor feedback she no longer wanted to film, and Malu offered to forfill her role as filmer. Overall the preliminary task gave our group a chance to work togther and produce our first media product, which lead to a better understanding of how difficult it is to film. This later benefited when producing our thriller film, because we had to plan our time effectively knowing how many shots and film clip can take.

Evaluation question 5

Evaluation question 4

Evaluation questin 6

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 2

 2) how does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our media product we originally planned to have six characters, but after re thinking the production. We narrowed it down to just three characters so it wouldn't be confusing. The characters were two boys and a girl. The boys were Fred and myself. The antagonist was the girl Bettie. This challenged the conventions of a thriller film, as females are seen to be weak and vulnerable. As a group we thought to have a female antagonist, as it would create a bigger shock to the audience.
We also went unconventional having both the boys as victims and no protagonists. The stereotypical boy would be seen as strong, over powering and in control.

Bettie role for most of the film was an everyday girl teenager, this was done to hide her identity of being the antagonist. The mis en scene, costume Bettie used was: jeans, jumper, converse and a coat so she looked like a normal teenager. Having Bettie casually dressed allowed the audience to easily relate to her. This is because we targeted our film at 15+ but mainly at he age range of 15-25. Therefor a stereotypical teenager would be easily relatable for someone in this age range, as the audience will either be a teenager or had just been a teenager.

All three characters in our media production were subversive to there gender. Bettie was dominant, clever and the killer. The boys were both powerless physically, mentally and they were both the victims. Although all the characters were displayed in a unconventional manor, our target audience is 15-25 so the characters we used were aged 16 and 17, this makes it easy for our target audience to relate to the characters even though they are unconventional of a thriller film.

The stereotypical thriller characters would be a strong male antogonist, usually masked or u identified. The stereotypical victim would be a innocent female, weak, vulnerable. Obviously in our media production we choose to be subversive and different to the rest. I think this was a good idea as it makes the film intriguing and orignal. Finally we choose not to mask Bettie as she was already masked by her gender, because it was not expected for Bettie to be the antagonist.

Coursework Evalution introduction/ question 1

Coursework evaluation

 My task was to create a two mintue media production, thriller film. The previous posts we have done helped to further my understanding on what to include in my thriller film, after constructing our individual narratives we was put into groups. I was put into a group with Bettie Cooper and Malu Pillai. Each member was assigned to different roles that were needed in order to create a succesful thriller film. My roles were director and producer, and I effectively carried out when and where to meet, positions of camera and characters and overall took my roles seriously. Bettie roles were screenplay writer and musical producer, the reason Bettie had these roles is because she is very creative and our group narrative was focused round her idea, therefor the screenplay writer had to be Bettie.
Malu's roles were director of photography and mis en scene co-oridnator. These roles were carried out by Malu because she has a good eye of how each shots should be filmed. Also Malu gave a good amount of input when planning the storyboards of our film, therefor mis en scene co ordinator was a role Malu was willing to for fill. Overall the group and I worked well to break down the film and split up our roles equally, in order to construct a successful thriller film. Bettie played a huge part in editing and bringing the the film Together. Malu took control of filming and keeping hold of the equipment for the group, and I brought in Freddie to help us film and came up with a lot of ideas that were used throughout our film.

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

The conventions of a thriller film include: Antagonist, low key lighting, quick cuts, shadows, tension building music, montage of shots and more. Throughout our media product we tried to include as many different codes and conventions but we mainly used, low key
lighting and tension building (with music and montage of shots) similar to 'Saw' and 'Sinister'  The use of tension building by montage of shots, and tension building music, outlines to the audience that it is a thriller film. It also puts the audience on the edge of their seats and builds up to a big scare, for example in our film before Bettie is revealed as the antagonist There is a build up, of a range of shots that linked into the music that was building up faster and louder. This was planned because in other successful films such as sinister they have a similar sequence of tension building before the big shock or scare. 

I also looked at the film 'the shining' and noticed that a shot reverse shot between a possible victim and the antagonist, this inspired me to use the shot verse shot in our thriller film. This was used when Bettie turns round to face Freddie, their is shot of the antagonist (Bettie) 
then the reaction from the possible victim (Freddie).  During filming this was quite difficult, as we had to make sure the camera was in the same place as Bettie. Also due to the ground being unequal in the forest, it took a long time to get the camera straight. But overall I think
then shot reverse shot worked well in maintaining the audiences fear for the possible victims in the forest. The inspiration I got from the shining was evidently constructed within our film. Undertaking the role of the director I ensured that the editing technique, shot reverse shot was done successfully. 

Another film we looked at was 'the women in black' this is where my group and I was inspired to use low key lightings. The low key lighting brings out an eery and scary feeling within the film, so this was inspirational and vital that we included low key lighting within Devour. In one of the scenes from women in black, the man is looking out of the window and the women in black's face appears on the window. The reason why this shot was so scary, was due to the low key lighting creating a eery atmosphere. Therefor in our thriller film we used different edits from Final Cut Pro to extract a dimmer and gloomy look to the film. Our thriller being filmed in the forest was very difficult as we only had about a thirty minute period were the actually lighting was naturally low key. Therefor using final cut pro's tools such as the filters 'Film Noir' and 'Luma Keyer'