Question 3 - Tom

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

When distributing our film we need to consider cost and impact. I personally feel like taking it upon ourselves to upload it to YouTube, becoming a partner or having a publisher feature it on their channel and being able to gain money from ad revenue. This would be a valid option as there is very little cost in doing this other than if we decided to pay to have Google place our video higher and advertise across YouTube. 

Another way we can distribute it is by allowing companies such as Netflix and Amazon Prime to add it to their services, not only because we can reach a wide audience and have a big impact without spending a lot of money, but we are also directly hitting our target audience, as this is what they would mainly use to watch TV or for entertainment in general so they are far more likely to see it. 

The main distributors are -


20th Century Fox

Lionsgate

Paramount

Pinewood Pictures

Sony

Studio Canal

Universal 

Warner Bros


However I wouldn't choose any of them to publish our film as they are too big, so instead I'd go with a distributor like Soda Pictures as they have released many independent films. 

Another alternative to distributing our film would be to show it in independent cinemas such as the Burgess Hill Orion and Picturehouse in Brighton.

Ideally I think the route of streaming our film and making it as available for anyone to watch on Netflix or any other service would be ideal as it reduces costs and we can reach a wider audience, which wouldn't be the same with the likes of producing hard copies as our target audience is more likely to want to stream their content.

Question 7 - Tom

Q.7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

                                               The Prelim                                                  

I think that I have progressed a lot in various ways from using the camera, editing & sound to just generally composition and creating a story.  

How have I progressed from the prelim to the main task

I think I have developed in many ways since the prelim task. Probably the biggest improvement I’ve noticed is using the camera to get different angles and also improvement on my continuity editing.

This is noticeable as you can see the transition in quality from the prelim to the main task. It can be down to many things like spending more time developing a storyboard and making sure we know what we are doing when it comes to filming so we get better quality shots and nothing is rushed.

With the continuity editing I think the way we planned on spending the time by doing the filming in blocks so that we had more time to spend doing editing also helped improve our final task compared to the prelim one.

Development of technical skills – Camera, Sound editing, editing, continuity editing and construction of story and character.

In the prelim it is quite obvious that I didn't quite know how to use the white balance on the camera we used as well as lighting so therefore some of our shots were a bit underexposed or exposed. In the final I experimented using the manual focus which you can see in our final cut.

To make sure we emphasized certain sounds we wanted we used the external mic, like we did in our prelim so we could sample the sound from that instead of using the camera’s; This we also did in our prelim but I feel it was more successful in the final as we had already gained experience before on how to try and cut it into the video easily.

We also used it for the parts where the camera audio wasn't very good, which meant I had to sync up the audio to certain points on the video (syncing when someone was speaking).

For our final I wanted it to flow well and look smooth when changing angles and cutting from transitions. To try and do this I made sure that each clip when put together made sure that whoever was in the frame was in the same area from the other angle, which I did attempt in the prelim but it didn't go as well as it did in the final, where it looks far better.

The final task I feel that by using all the techniques mentioned above it helped create character and really made you focus on the story easily without being distracted so much by the things that went wrong or you weren’t meant to see.

How else we could have improved

We could have improved by acting more professional during filming (i.e. using phones which therefore left an audible mark on the recordings). This meant that we had to search through all our recordings to try and cover up the parts where it started buzzing.

There are a few shots we left in the final cut which I’m not totally happy about/don’t like as much, but they do work well with what we have even if my favourite bit of a scene we filmed didn’t make the final cut due to time restrictions or it affected the overall flow of the whole thing.

Question 5 - Tom

Q.5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Explain why your audience would enjoy your film. Select details from it that support your answer.

I think our thriller appeals to our target audience as it includes –

- Violence

- Blood

- Interesting story

- A lot of tension.

We uploaded our thriller to YouTube and got some feedback from our target audience which from their comments shows that they did enjoy it. It meant that it also did come with some critique on what we could have done better.

We wanted our thriller to use a lot of different and unique camera angles, which we felt would add to the suspense and create more mystery.

We chose to not use a soundtrack throughout other than with the foreshadowing, time lapses and ending.

Question 4 - Tom

Q.4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our target audience is an audience aged around 12-16 of both females and males. The reason behind this is that we decided it wasn't distressing or gory in a way it would be inappropriate for our target audience. Another reason we chose this target audience is that we feel they are more likely to watch thrillers than other age groups. The reason why I feel that females might also be interested in watching it is that the protagonist is a girl, and in most thrillers it is usually a guy.

I think that our chosen audience really would have enjoyed our thriller as it keeps them guessing with the foreshadowing opening. And the fact it is shot from two perspectives as in the protagonist’s and the antagonist’s.

Transporter 3

Transporter 3 directed by Oliver Megaton is a fast paced action fuelled thriller which has an age rating of 15. Although our thriller doesn’t have any action as such, it definitely builds tension which the transporter does also.

http://www.pearlanddean.com/film/filmpage/transporter-3

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty is a suspense thriller with a lot of action and tension that is directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It has a age rating of 15. Zero Dark Thirty also features a lot of handy-cam camera movement and some unusual angles which we also tried to create in our thriller to build suspense and make it more interesting to watch.

http://www.pearlanddean.com/film/filmpage/zero-dark-thirty

Argo

Argo is a drama filled thriller that builds it’s tension using fast paced shots and sweeping angles during tense scenes. It is directed by Ben Affleck and has an age rating of 15.

http://www.pearlanddean.com/film/filmpage/argo

Question 2 - Tom

Q.2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who is being represented in our product?

- our product represents gender,  as it shows a young girl who is seen as vulnerable in the video.

How are our characters represented?

- Our male character we chose to use a lot of point of view camera angles and a lot of angles that showed he was listening in on conversations.  We also decided to use the editing between his point of view to a shot of our main female character to show his intentions and to show how much she is at risk. Most of our footage is taken from a eye level height to give a sense of immersion and also some of it from pov to emphasize this. By using these various techniques, in the scene for example where the antagonist is following the protagonist this gives the representation that she is vulnerable as it is directly put there to show you that he is following. By using a lot of subtle cutaways to various angles from long shots to medium ones gives the sense that she is alone and also keeps you on edge if something is about to happen.

Any positive or negative representations of this social group?

- There is certainly negative connotations with our male character as we decided to portray him in such a way by making him look quite normal but at the same time not actually saying anything throughout does make him look more dangerous. Whereas our female character she is represented in a negative way of being vulnerable with the camera angles and editing we used to make it look like she was a target in a way.

*Stereotyping that it's a guy - reference Taken*

Discuss who has the power or higher status in your film opening. 

- the opening of our thriller it is clear that the female character doesn't have much power as it opens on her showing her all beaten and with blood on her face. As it moves on and we discover that she started to become suspicious of our male character it is clear that she is in a vulnerable position,  so we show the male character of being one step ahead in the sense he is watching her. 

Why have we chosen to represent our character in this way

- Opening the thriller in the way we have with the foreshadowing not only shows that she is the main character and the one that you need to pay attention to but also the fact that you know something bad will happen. 

Question 1 - Tom

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

Conventions of thriller –

First the definitions of ‘thriller’ and to ‘thrill’,

‘Thriller – A novel, play, or film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage.’

‘Thrill – A sudden feeling of excitement..’

With these definitions in mind a Thriller film must contain these certain features that make it identifiable as a thriller. First it must be exciting and have an interesting plot. It can range a number of themes, where it can be either noire, action or crime or any other type.

However it cannot contain anything supernatural as this then is not classed as a thriller but a horror.

So therefore a Thriller needs to be tense and contain enigma, something that grabs your attention. It needs to have an exciting/interesting plot that will also create mood and atmosphere to add to the tension, this makes the consumers more immersed.

When researching other thrillers I found that they all contained various elements above that I mentioned.

Limitless –

Limitless is a good example of a thriller as even the opening has become one of the most famously recognized and creative intro's. The first shot is off a male character standing on the edge of a high rise building. This brings many questions up about who he is and what he is doing. This is a similar opening to our own thriller which we have the protagonists’ face covered in blood which starts raising similar questions just like Limitless.

Limitless also features normal looking objects in a normal setting which is known as iconography as then it then shows dead bodies scattered around the building. In our thriller we also used iconography to try and create more suspense as we wanted it to look more natural.

Limitless also uses restricted & unrestricted narration to further the story which we also used in our thriller to try and create more tension. One example of restricted narration is when the antagonist discovers that the protagonist is becoming suspicious of him and this is when the story starts to unfold.

Most thriller films tend to have a lot of cuts to keep the pace fast and build more tension, these also are usually joined with fast close ups of the protagonists face which can then also highlight the urgency of the situation they are in and therefore makes the audience interested in what is going on/going to happen.

To start creating questions and building suspense straight away we decided to use the ending at the beginning also known as foreshadowing. This makes the audience start asking questions and trying to figure out how it happened. 
For this we used our protagonist's scene once she had been beaten up. 

Question 6 - Tom

Q.6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?