Friday 24 April 2009

Preliminary Task-Experimenting

Thriller Opening "The Informant"-Final Product


Thriller Opening Information-Preparation

Introduction-Originally I was in a group for my preliminary task but then made the decision to produce my final Thriller opening by myself. I didn't stick to the original idea used in my prelim task.

Title-The Informant

Plot-A child is kidnapped from the sings of a playground by an unknown man who took the little girl as blackmail. The mother of the child holds important information and the film consists of the mother going through daring events and doing anything in her power to get her little child back-even if it means murder.

Location-The location of the opening is a playground. A scene is also shot form a mans room.

Actors-Two little girls, Unknown kidnapper and the mother are the main actors of the film. The most important actors of the film are the mother and the kidnapper.

Evaluation-Final Product

Thriller Evaluation



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


My sequence has the typical conventions of a thriller due to its plot of a child being kidnapped in exchange for information he needs. The scenes which represent a thriller are the handheld shots and the overall secrecy of the man’s identity. The shots I used to form my thriller are all realistic shots either hand-held or filmed using a tripod. I was influenced by the movie "Gone Baby Gone" which I researched into also i was influenced by a number of different TV programs to get my initial idea. The locations used were seen as thriller locations by the editing of the sequence to get the story line going. The story behind the sequence gives it a sub-genre of an investigation as well as it being a thriller.


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


I would reckon that my media product should be rated 15 due to storyline being a girl kidnapped which some young viewers may find disturbing. During my research using Pearl and Dean into other thrillers and films relating to children being kidnapped I found that the high percentages are around the 15-24 age groups. Overall I believe my media product would attract both male and female and all race viewers of an age group around 15 to 40 and mainly families. A point about my media product is that the kidnapper is male and the child and parent are both female so this stereotype of men being in control of a woman due to blackmail might affect some audiences.


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


A main concern of my media product to get it to a Hollywood studio would be the actors. If the mother were to be a well know actress to attract more of the male audience I believe this storyline could make a mainstream film. If this were to happen then there would be a higher exposure of the main actor which would therefore attract more audiences. If my media product was to go to the mainstream cinema I think it would later go on to being a TV movie.


4) Who would be the audience for your media product?


My media product would be suitable for all race and gender audiences with an age range or 15 to 40 year old viewers. Due to the style of my media product I believe it should be given a 12A or 15 rating.



5) How did you attract/address your audience?


A lot of the shots used were used on a tripod or with a steady hand. However a few shots were filmed hand held to represent a point of view shot of the kidnapper. For example the shot behind the bushes and where the actor creeps up behind the girl on the swing were representing a point of view shot. These scenes may have made a viewer feel they were in the scene and they were creeping up on the child. This would give interest into the viewer and make them feel scared for the little child. Other shots may have made the audience feel they were witnesses to the kidnapping but they couldn’t do anything about it. This gives an impact of fear and suspense towards a viewer.


6) What have you learnt about technologies from the processes of constructing the product?


The main technology used in the making of my media product was Final Cut Pro which I used to edit parts of my recording done using a camcorder. Using the camcorder was simple enough. However the editing of the sequence and putting it together was much harder. The technology level was higher than I have had experience of so it was fun to learn this technique and technology for media. The main problems I faced during my production of my product would be the editing as I had never used Final Cut Pro before, however I got help with the understanding of it.


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


I have learnt a wide range of media techniques including production filming and editing. The planning and researching into thrillers gave me a starting point towards my finial product. Also the experimenting of camera shots and ways of filming within my preliminary task made the process a lot easier. For my thriller opening I wanted the camera shots to be specific to the storyline. For example I used hand held to represent point of view. I used shots I learnt in my preliminary in my final product such as match on match action.


8) What was the average audience feedback?


I showed my thriller opening to a number of people and received positive feedback. I also got someone willing to write a little about what they thought about it:

"I am a Media student also producing a media thriller. This film was good as it contained the typical conventions of a thriller such as suspense, use of close-up camera shots, also the colors chosen e.g. the red ribbon makes me want to watch this film start to finish to find out what happens to the little girl as the opening gave a cliff-hanger."

The majority of my target audience responded very positively. They said they liked the use of contrast with the playground which symbolised innocence compared to the setting in the room with the mysterious person on the computer which represented fear.

Story board-Preparation

Here is my storyboard for my media thriller opening. I chose to work on my own for the coursework assignment.

"Jaws" film analysis-Research

For preparation into our Media Coursework we looked at not only analysing thriller posters but we also looked the thriller movie "Jaws" and this time we analysed the opening to the film. This is a copy of my film analysis of "Jaws" which I received a B grade for.



"Domino" poster analysis-Research

Another film poster I chose to analyse was "Domino" which had a different genre and was a action film as well as a thriller. I chose to look into another genre to look at the differences between the posters for each to get an understanding of what a thriller poster looks like compared to other genres. Also it gives and understanding of what to expect.


"The Butterfly Effect" poster analysis-Research

Here is an essay written on the poster "The Butterfly Effect". It was done in more detail than my other two choices of film as here I didn't just point out the obvious on the poster but I also wrote my opinions etc.


Tuesday 21 April 2009

"Awake" poster analysis-Research

This is a poster of the thriller movie "Awake" which I analysed. I had not seen the film before I analysed this poster so i didn't have a big idea on what the film was about but I simply wrote what I saw in the poster. Shortly after analysing the poster I saw the film and it was actually what I expected to see after have a look at the poster.