Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

this is a camstasia the similarities between the two film openers marathon man and my film mystiko title sequences.




This is a prezi explaining the similarities in terms of shot, mise en scene and clothing that were similar in my opener and another film opener

Evaluation Q7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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This Gif compares how in our prelim, our tripod was not straight therefore we had a wonky shot. in our final film we made sure every shot was straight which is shown in the picture and it makes our film seem more professional.



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This GIF shows how i left too much space above the head in my prelim however in my final film i made sure that every shot was tightly framed.




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This gif illustrates how in my prelim i made a very big mistake of leaving the tripod in the background of some of my shots. the gif also shows how in my film opener, although the tripod was not in use, we made sure it was not in any shots.








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this compares how the lighting from my my prelim and my thriller opener differ. in my prelim the lighting is too bright for it to seem like we were filming it indoors. in my thriller opener i made sure the lighting was perfect and gave it a mysterious feel. also the mise en scene is better because in the prelim the cloths are too casual however in the opener I'm wearing a suit making it seem more exciting



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in my prelim i put my titles on a black screen, however in my thriller opener i either cut to moving cars or another shot linking to our film or while the film was playing. this made our film flow better and made it look more appealing however the back screen makes it slow.

Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

this is a prezi explaining the stereotypes and aspects which attracted the audience

Evaluation Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q3 presentation 

This is a powerpoint presentation i made explaining the different companies used to make/distribute my film and why.

Evaluation Q4 - What would be the audience for your media product?

The wider audience generally for thrillers are 15+. people who will find it exciting and wont be offended by some of the violent scenes. We used Twitter as seen above to distribute to this audience and locate them.

our sub-genre is conspiracy and the target audience for that are 20+ because of its complexity and adults will understand the hidden meaning more.

All in all our target audience is aimed at 15+ because the teens will find it thrilling due to the hints of violence and the adults will enjoy the hidden meanings.

Evaluation Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

these are a few people talking on the film.

Evaluation Q6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is a final cut pro sequence illustrating the different technologies i used.

Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Q3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Q4 - What would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Q6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

FINISHED!

Here's a picture of us once we have finished our blogging and have saved our project.

Showing our film to our age of target audience

These are a bunch of 16 to 18 year olds viewing our film, this is because they are the people me target so we are getting as much feedback as possible.

Mystiko ending

At the end of the film, the head of Mystiko gets confronted by James McCarthy (Leon Blanche - the protagonist), who then injects him with a sedative and then ties him up, sits him down and then tells him everything he has been through and all the bad things he has done. James makes him transfer all the finances of Mystiko which is then given to charity. The film ends with James electrocuting the head of Mystiko to death.

Behind The Scenes

This is a video showing the behind the scenes aspect of filming!

What we learnt from feedback

In our feedback we was told that it was very existing and thrilling and the music matched the film.

We was also told that some shot were too long which we changed.

Why we asked the people we did

We asked students in A2 and AS this is because our target audience were 15+. This meant we could get some insight on how people would feel if was actually exhibited to the public.

Bloopers (2)

This is a shot that went wrong because the actors started laughing!

Bloopers (1)

This is a video of a shot that went wrong because the actors weren't in character!

Evaluation of Mystiko.

All in all, I feel that our final product of the film had met our expectations. This is because we feel that it flows properly and all the shots are short enough to give it that high tempo feel. Also we feel that the music works effectively with the footage

Other people's views

This are more people as well as the other person in the video viewing our film. We told more people to watch it, in order to get a variety of feedback.

Changing the layout of the blog.

This is a picture of Yacine changing the colors and layout of the blog so that they compliment the theme of our film.

FINISHED!

This is a photo of Yacine ticking us off as finished!

An audience member's views

This is a video of an audience member watching our film, then a short interview with them after asking if they enjoyed it, and what they particularly liked about it/thought we should work on. Overall we had very good feedback.

PLANNING - interview

This is an interview about how we planned our film with Yacine. He is asked about how our final film differed from our initial ideas, how we decided on our locations, and how we got together our props and costumes.

FILMING - interview

This is a video interview with Yacine about the filming process. Included is details of what was easy, what was difficult and how things generally went.

EDITING - Interview

This is an interview with Ciere about the editing process - what went wrong (and how we overcome it), what went right, and how we managed to get our final film how we wanted it.

EDITING - editing for our final cut

This is a video of Ciere in the middle of editing our film. She is trying to fine cut and add a few more final touches to the film.

Compressing our videos for the blog!

This is a photo of us compressing the videos for Blogger using MPEG Streamclip. This program compresses the videos so they are smaller and able to be seen on the blog.

Titles

This is us in the middle of doing our titles for mystiko.

Catching up with our blogging!

This is a photo of Yacine blogging about the soundtrack that we made for the film opening.

cutting up the sound

We used garageband to cut up the sound. we used this in particular because i find it very easy to use.

Making sound

This is us in the process of creating our sound for our opener using the software, sound pro.
It took us some time to get used to it however in the end we did.

What we have learnt in this project

Since the beginning of this project, as a group we have learnt how to work together to successfully plan, film and edit a thriller opening which the final cut of we are all content with. We have come across many problems, but we have overcome them. For example, at first our rough cut was more than a minute too long, but we managed to fine cut it enough so it was only two minutes by deleting scenes that were unnecessary and shortening the vital ones that were far too long.

RESEARCH - structures of film openings

Narrative opening - A film with a narrative opening is one that's title sequence is actually part of the film, with the titles superimposed on the shot, or in between the shots. Panic Room is an example of a film that does this (with the titles superimposed on the shot). The opening sequence can be seen below.

Discrete title sequence - A film with a discrete title sequence is one that usually begins with the film starting, without any titles playing. After what usually is a significant event, the film cuts to another sequence of shots which are still somewhat related, in which the titles are played also. This can be seen in Skyfall, which has a very distinct opening sequence.

Stand alone titles - A film with standalone titles is one that has the titles playing over a background that is not part of the movie, and is usually static as opposed to dynamic. Sometimes this is used to make sure the audience's full attention is on the words on the screen - for example, for a big actor or director, or it can commonly be used in thriller openings to create suspense. A classic example of stand alone titles can be seen in the opening for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

RESEARCH - film audiences

A film audience is the group of people that a specific film or genre is targeted at. For example, a romantic movie may be directed a teenage girls and young women, while an action thriller would be directed at young men. This doesn't mean that other people can't watch these movies, it just means that the movie is aimed at whatever group of people the production company feels will be the largest fraction of the target audience.

Many thriller films have a rating of 15 or even 18, as a lot of them have content that is not suitable for children. This may include violence, strong language, etc. For the most part, thrillers are aimed at adults, and generally men above women, as a lot of action thrillers for example will feature a beautiful woman character, which is a selling point in getting adult men interested in the film.

The poster below is for the film Parker, which is being released tomorrow. The poster shows the protagonist with a gun, then the actress/singer Jennifer Lopez behind him. This combination draws the target audience in, and makes them want to know more about the film, so they will go and see it.

RESEARCH - genre and subgenre

Genre - the main theme of the film, be it a thriller, comedy, drama, etc. This is what generally defines the movie.

Subgenre - This is the secondary genre of the film. For example, if a film is a thriller, it may be a sci-fi thriller, for example 'In Time' is a sci-fi thriller. Other common subgenres are romantic comedies and action thrillers like 'Taken'.

The thriller subgenre I find most interesting is conspiracy thriller, examples of which are 'Eagle Eye' and 'Flightplan'. I think movies of this genre are good because they make the audience think about what they are watching, and are suspenseful until the very end when there is usually a twist of some kind.

The trailer for one example 'Flight Plan' is below:

Behind the scenes of Mystiko shoot

These are the actors in the opener who are getting ready for filming and getting in character. These are just a few pictures to show what the environment was like.

Rough cut feedback

Our feedback was to add sound which we unfortunately didn't get around to doing

Add more titles.

RE-film the picking up the suitcase shot.

fine cut it to make it 2mins

EDITING - Rough cut of final film

This is our rough cut from the final film that we have been working on for two weeks or so, but we still need to cut it down, fine tune it and add a few more titles.

RESEARCH - Film opening from Art of The Title

The title sequence I chose from Art of The Title in order to analyse is that of the film 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World', which is based off the comic book of the same name. The title sequence (and even the movie itself) lie close to its cartoon-style roots, despite being a live action film.

While plenty of movies start with the distribution/production company's titles, this movie has taken a different approach with it, and the Universal titles have been redesigned to have an 8-bit video game effect, with music to match. This can be heard/seen here.

The next shot follows the same idea of the movie being linked to its comic book counterpart, by introducing the movie as a book may be introduced. The bold letters catch the attention of the audience, and the elipsis add suspense and leave the audience wanting to know more.

Next is a shot of the main characters sitting at a table, which is the start of the film. The rest of the titles are not playing yet, as the opening will later cut to this.

Unlike most films, this one introduces the characters with titles over the top of the shot instead of having them introduce themselves within conversation for one another. This is an unconventional feature to match the comic book style, and breaks the forth wall somewhat.

The titles begin when the fictional band in the film play, so the titles are soundtracked by their music. The production company is mentioned first, as pictured above.

The title of the movie is next, and cuts off in to a black background as opposed to the band of before. This is to make sure that all the attention of the audience is on the title of the movie.

While the music of the band is still playing, a sequence featuring abstract art begins, with the names of the actors who are in the film. This generally follows the conventional order of a title sequence.

Editiing

This is us in the middle of editing our opener and trying to fine cut it

Editing: effects

Editing:



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this is our group editing and changing the effect of one of our shots making it into a blur

This gif shows the process of us changing the effects

RESEARCH- Film Audiences

Film Audiences 

I think that most common audience for a thriller movie is 15+, due to frequent  blood, violence, sex etc. scenes.  This could be disturbing to younger audiences and affect them psychologically. I think that both males and females are able to enjoy thrillers. However, I think that it'd mainly be based towards males, as stereo-typically, males are emotionally stronger and more likely to have an interest towards a thriller genre.

Also, some sub genres of a thriller could be hard for younger audiences to understand such as political thrillers,  conspiracy thrillers, supernatural thrillers, psychological thrillers etc. For example ; Psychological thrillers usually need more intellectual thinking, as it is complicated and confusing; there's usually two or more characters battling against each others minds; trying to demolish each others mental states including lots of mind games etc.

Films with Similar Target Audiences; 

'The Grey'- Liam Neeson

'The Possession'- By Ole Bordenal

RESEARCH- Film Opening Conventions from Art of the title Sequence

Film Opening from Art of title sequence

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/run-lola-run/

There are many conventions used in this film opening that i liked- 'Run Lola Run';

• The opening starts of calm; we could hear the ticking of a clock in the background, and see an evil looking sculpture rocking back and forth over the title sequence ; credits over a blank/black screen. I liked this part because it creates a lot of tension, and brings mysterious aspects to what it's all about. The pace is rather slow. 

• Another thing that i liked was the way it exposed what the sculpture was after the title sequence was shown, and zoomed in from a low angle upwards towards the clock using different angles, i think it had a very nice flow. Ticking and tocking of the clock got louder as closer as it got. This made a nice effect.

• As it goes further into the opening,there is whispering in the background ,the camera zooms past a blurred crowd of people and stops at certain points introducing some of the main characters from the film.I like that part, because the characters stare into the camera as the camera moves around them, and everyone around them are blurred , so it emphasizes on the introduction of the main characters..
• There is also a voice over at this part. Questioning the viewers , as well as constant background whispering. I think this makes a very nice contrast and works very interestingly at this point. Building and creating tension.

• At this point,football gets kicked up in the air and the crown turns into the title.The football falls back down and converts into animated scene. I like this part, as it converts and sets a different mood. I think the audience, like myself, would find that intriguing. 

• The main character runs through a tunnel , with credits over the screen. The pace has increased. The main character seems like she's jumping over obstacles in the tunnel, this could imply that the main character in the movie will have many dilemma's to face.  This draws me into it, because it makes me want to see what those dilemmas will be.

• I like the way it starts playing into the movie. The zoom in is used, going past buildings , windows, doors ,through a house, and into a bedroom where the telephone is ringing, the closer it comes , the ringer it rings. I think this sets a great mood to start watching the film .

Planning - thriller summary

Mystiko

The proposed film is about a secret organisation similar to the illuminati called 'Mystiko', and how they have been the cause of the death of the protagonist's parents years ago. He has spent the first of his adult years planning his revenge, and now he is ready to conduct it. The thriller opening starts with the protagonist sitting in a 'Prison Break' style room, at a desk with piles of papers, files and notes everywhere, and maps and newspaper articles on the wall. The protagonist is seen putting gloves on, and then the scene cuts to him walking outside a house dressed in a smart suit and sunglasses, then getting in to a black car. Next, the protagonist is seen walking in to a luxury building, which unknown to the audience is the headquarters of the organisation. 

We used intertextuality from other conspiracy thrillers such as The Bourne Ultimatum.

Research - health & safety tutorial

During our health and safety tutorial, we were introduced to various pieces of equipment that we will be using for the course. We were taught how to take care of the equipment properly and how to use it safely.

JVC camera - we were taught how to use the functions of the camera safely, as well as how to use features such as manual focus and zooming in/out. We were shown examples of how to film good quality footage, and then view it afterwards, and insert the memory cards correctly.

Tripod - as this can be quite dangerous, we were taught how to assemble the tripod correctly and set it up straight, then how to put the camera on top of it without chance of it falling off.

Digital 'still' camera - we use this to make storyboards for the filming we plan to do, as well as shots of us during filming and production. We were taught how to use it's basic features, and how to insert the memory cards.

Video drive - this is a piece of equipment we use to store anything that we create as part of our coursework. This includes soundtrack pro files, final cut pro files, published videos and photos.









Other examples of equipment we were introduced to were the memory cards that we use in the cameras and optional extra lighting and sound equipment.

 This is our Prezi that we put together to pitch to our teacher, to give her an insight in to what our film is about and how we will go about creating it.

RESEARCH- Health & Safety

Health & Safety Tutorial 

In one of the tutorials, we got introduced to some Media equipment and health and safety instructions for them. Those included the following ;

• JVC Video Camera - We was introduced to JVC video camera; turning it on/off, filming footage, viewing filmed footage, mode buttons e.g. zoom in/out, focusing on a certain object, insert/ eject memory card & battery etc. 

• Tripod - Tripod was another piece of the equipment that was introduced to us; we were shown how to set it up and how to adjust the camera to it tightly and securely, so that when carried, the camera doesn't drop out
• The tripod had security clips at the middle and the bottom of the tripod legs. We had to be  careful with those, incase we got our fingers stuck.

• Still Camera - We was also introduced to a still camera. This is the one we used to make our storyboards, and take shots of our 'behind the scene' shots. 

We was also given a hard drive within our groups and were explained on how it works. We got given 3 memory cards for a separate storage of our data; JVC video camera / still camera  data etc. as well as the card readers to take our footage out on to the computer. We was introduced to lightning and sound equipment, which weren't needed for most occasions.