Tuesday 23 March 2010





Friday 19 March 2010

Final Cut of thriller



This is the final edit of our thriller film titled Fixation.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Evaluation draft deadline mon 22nd 9am, final deadline mon 29th 9am

Thriller Film Opening Sequence Evaluation - 1500-2000 words
PowerPoint uploaded to moodle

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?
What conventions of professional products have you used in your own film? (narrative conventions, character conventions, genre, camerawork, sound, editing, special effects, mise-en-scene? Use screen grabs of your own sequence to illustrate each example where you have followed conventions or gone against (challenged) conventions. Also use images from the films that have influenced you where relevant.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? (gender, age, ethnicity etc.)
Compare a character in your sequence to a character in a professional film (use images). If you have included a villain/victim character, does the character follow conventions of characters in professional films. For example, is your villain male? Is your victim female? Therefore how are you representing gender?

3. What kind of media institution would distribute your media product?

Discuss similar professional films and their production companies (use images of the films and logos). Which production Company do you think would distribute your film? (if it was professional and if you had made the full film).

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? (BBFC and target audience) Use images from a similar product with a similar target audience. Remember that target audience is not the same as classification.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Refer to Significant moments in your sequence where you have tried to generate a response from the spectator (a close up to encourage identification with a character, music that encourages the spectator to feel suspense, tense, visceral reaction etc.) What techniques have you used to encourage the spectator to want to see the rest of the film? (Clues about narrative, character, etc.) Use screen grabs of your own sequence.

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

(blog, camera equipment, editing software – Final Cut Express, istopmotion, Garageband etc.) Use screen grabs/photos of all these things. Be very specific about tools/effects/techniques learnt not just ‘I have learnt a lot about the software’

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your final product?
Discuss your second preliminary task that you did in a week before starting Thriller. Discuss what you have learnt since then about construction of micro elements in order to create meaning, how to use different techniques, practical skills etc. How have you built on your knowledge that you learnt from the prelim task? Use screen grabs of your prelim task and your sequence where relevant.

Friday 12 March 2010

Response to feedback

In response to our feedback on our rough cut.
We have read our feedback and on the whole we are happy with the response we got. In response to our feedback we can extend the length of our opening and work on our soundtrack to make it fit better with our video sequence.
We agree with the feedback that our sequence is to short and needs to be lengthened and to do this we are planning to film some more scenes which will make up opening go up to the required timings. Also we agree with the fact that sometimes our soundtrack does not always match the sequence on the screen which then makes the clip loose some atmosphere. To overcome this we will work hard on our soundtrack to make it better and more conventional of the thriller genre.

Rough Cut Feedback

Group P1 05
- We thought that the camera angles used were really effective and added to the atmosphere as they had some interesting shots, such as the shots through the metal fence.
We thought that the scene made sense as it showed the body first and then the photographs meaning that they may be linked. It made sense although it did not give too much away, which we thought was really clever.
We thought that it could be improved as the last scene where Marina was on the floor, the music cuts which ruins the atmosphere slightly. Apart from this, the music throughout the sequence is really effective and made it very tense. Wicked! (Y)

Group P1 01
-We though the editing used looked very professional and the sound used was well synchronized with what was going on in the opening. There was a very wide range of camera shots which built up tension and looked as though it will lead to a good plot throughout the rest of the thriller. This will engage viewers and make them want to see the rest. They need to make it a lot longer to fit in the time frame that it is supposed to be (2 minutes 30). Despite only having a short amount of footage it is still top notch.

P1-02- We believe that the production was very good. We liked the array of different shot types, especially when looking though the stairs. We like the variation from colour to black & white, which contrasted emotion from the characters. Overall, we believe the music we quite good, although some parts did not fir the sequence.

P1-03-
Good soundtrack
Liked the refocusing of the camera when photos were introduced
Quite short length
Interesting shots
Nice use of zooms
Liked the contrast of locations
Good use of costume, girl in red

Wednesday 10 March 2010

Rough Cut For Thriller Opening



Feedback:
- We would like feedback on the camera angles and if the opening sequence makes sence.
- We would like feedback on the sound track and if it fits in and if it creates the correct - ( tense scary ) atmosphere.

We would like to include another couple of scenes, between the others. These scenes would include: people in forensic overalls, and some more shots of the stalker which make it more obvious that it is actually a stalker.

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Evaluation Questions

The following questions must be answered in your evaluation PowerPoint:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

09.03.10

Today we have edited and reordered the footage that we have saved on the computer, but we could not finish the editing as not all the footage is on the computer because the camera isnt in college to do this.
We will finish reordering and editing next lesson and convert it into quicktime at then end.
We are also going to continue with our soundtrack, and start drafting our evaluations.

Deadlines

  • Weds 10th - Rough cut deadline
  • Friday 12th - Feedback lesson and 30 mins editing
  • Tues 16th - NO COLLEGE
  • Weds 17th - Editing
  • Friday 19th - Final cut deadline (allow 30 mins for quicktime and upload)
  • Monday 22nd - Evaluation draft deadline (9am moodle/email
*Lessons this week spent on putting finishing touches to evaluation.
  • Monday 29th - Final evaluation deadline (9am moodle/email)

Friday 5 March 2010

MURDER OF LOCAL NEWS REPORTER


LOCAL NEWS REPORTER KATIE JOHNSON WAS FOUND DEAD IN THE WOODLAND WALK IN CAMBRIDGE.








POLICE HAVE NOT NAMED ANY SUSPECTS OF YET BUT AN ENQUIRY INTO THE BRUTAL MURDER HAS BEEN LAUNCHED. ANY INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC IS VITAL



CONTACT: 07895234566

cambridgeshire police department




this post will be included in our opening sequence as we want the audience to know that the victim is missing

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Iconography



we are going to use some iconography in our film, in particular the victim shall be wearing a red dress. We chose this colour as it is often symbolic of danger, and death which emphasises the fact that muder has taken place at the beginning of the sequence. The brightness of the colour also works well in the shots of the dead body as it contrasts with the comparitively dull background of the forrest and makes the victim stand out by catching the eye of the audiance.




Similarly, the villain will be dressed in dark colours to symbolise evil and emphasises the mystery surrounding the identity of the killer as we never actually see his face in the sequence.


Tuesday 2 March 2010

Progress so far

So far we have made good progress within our group. We have established our characters roles and filmed some scenes of our opening sequence which include our characters. We have also continued to keep up to date on our blog. We encountered some problems with the location of our filming as we could not find a available classroom so we wasted some time finding one. The first thing we filmed had to be re-done due to something being in the shot which wasn't meant to be there. from this we have learned to be more aware of what is in the shot at all times. To continue with this progress we need to finish of all our filming, and keep up to date with the blog, and meet all the deadlines that have been set: 8th March-Filming Deadline, 12th March-Rough Cut Deadline.