Evaluation 7- Natalia and Katie

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

                       

Evaluation 6 - Katie

Evaluation Activity 6) 

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

Evaluation 5 - Katie

Evaluation Activity 5) 

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract an audience for a film, you must catch the attention of the public. To do this you would use marketing campaigns such as social media (having Twitter/Facebook pages for your film where you would post information about it and where the fans could follow the latest news) as well as posters and official movie websites. 

Below is a mind map of all the ways you could attract an audience to a film and the marketing campaigns that are used. Films with a bigger budgets can make a larger marketing campaign compared to smaller independent films where the budget may only be a few thousand. The  If it is a Hollywood film with a big budget then more famous actors can be casted, as well as well known directors. If this is the case, then the film will probably be marketed and talked about a lot more than if an independent film. 

In regards to our own thriller, I made a poster that I imagine would be put up in cinemas and on the DVD cover. This poster indicates that our film is a thriller due to the black and white background and the mysterious slogan. 

• Red writing "You never know what's going on behind closed doors" = slogan for film - makes an audience question what does happen behind closed doors and what happens in this film
• Red = colour of blood
• Red writing stands out against black and white of the whole poster 
• Poster image = person in house
• Title of film 'Disorientation'  in big letters to stand out - writing is slightly different to the usual so therefore might intrigue people
• Date of release on poster - in a larger font to stand out to audience
• Rating on poster (15) - allows audience to know if they can see it or not. Also lets audience know what to expect (what you get with a 15 rating)
• Slightly blurry picture in the background connects to the title - image is disorientated
• Black and white poster creates mystery, intriguing audience.

The poster I created is similar to other thriller movie posters, such as 'Orphan', 'The Call' and 'The Roommate'. The poster for 'Orphan' is just a close up of the main character. This creates mystery which I made in our poster by the black and white background and by just using the bottom half of someone. 

All of these movies have slogans that relate to that movie alone, and when someone hears that slogan they think of the movie. I have created my own slogan that I think holds mystery and intrigues an audience. 

I think that posters are an effective way of promoting a film because it captures the attention of the audience immediately. A poster can intrigue an audience member which may result in them researching the film further. As well as this, they can share the poster on various sites or by word of mouth.

Furthermore, through the internet you can attract an audience. Social media websites like Twitter and Facebook help to promote the film. Twitter is a platform where people can write their reviews on the trailers/movie. It's also a place where people can hear about the film. This is the same with Facebook and Tumblr. Youtube is slightly different, because this is where everything is posted. For example, this is where trailers are posted, reviews from all different types of people are posted and also a place where you can learn about the film, like on channels that talk about the red carpet events and latest movie news.

Below I have made my own Twitter page for our film.

Conventions Of A Thriller include:

• Tension and Suspense
• An antagonist and protagonist
• Plot twists which keep audience guessing and on the edge of their seat
• Red herrings which mislead the audience with information
• Cliffhangers
• Trick endings
• Clues pointing to the ending

It is difficult to incorporate all of these conventions in our thriller because it is just the opening and not the whole film. However ours does include tension and suspense, an antagonist and protagonist and (could be argued)red herrings.

Below is an evaluation of our thriller opening. I discussed what happens in our media product and how this creates suspense and tension. Our thriller involves a lot of unanswered questions which would keep an audience intrigued and wanting to watch the film to find the answers to these questions. 

Evaluation 4 - Katie

Evaluation Activity 4)

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation 4

In this powerpoint I described who I think the audience for our thriller movie would be and why. I also explained people who probably wouldn't be interested in seeing our movie (younger children and older people). Also, I described the age rating for our film and why I would pick that, as well as identifying 3 main target audience groups (young males, young females and young adults) ranging from the ages of 15-20+. 

Shot A (left)

Shot B (below) 

Evaluation 3 - Katie

Evaluation Activity 3)

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

In our opening, it was essential that we included a production company and logo, along with a distribution company and logo. Making these things were crucial to a film opening, as a production process and distribution is what every film has to go through. Below you can see our own original companies logos. 

Production is a crucial aspect when making a film. There are 3 distinct stages of film production, including: Pre Production, Production and Post Production.

Pre Production includes: 

- Cast and crew

- Location

- Script

- Studio/Set

- Lighting

- Director 

- Producer 

- Budget

Production includes: 

Actually picking up the camera and filming the movie in the studio or on the set. A big crew is needed for this part of the process, as lighting crew, camera crew and directors/assistances are all needed. The end result of the production process is what an audience will be paying to view, therefore is a key stage in making a film. Independent films, such as 'Sixteen' (Brown, 2013) will not take as long to film as Hollywood films. 'Sixteen' actually only took 3 weeks to film compared to Hollywood's big seller 'Jurassic World'(Trevorrow, 2015) which took 10 years to make it to the screens.

Post Production includes:

- Editing

- Trailers 

- Soundtracks

- Making posters

- Special/sound effects

Distribution is a crucial part of films as it requires an audience to be made. This can be done in a variety of ways. A distributer focuses on two main aspects, logistics (to get the film to the exhibitor) and marketing (to create an audience for the film). 

The main distributors in the UK are 

- Warner Brothers 

- 20th Century Fox

- Sony Pictures

- United International Pictures 

Examples of independent distributors in the UK are

- BBC Films

- Film 4

- Studio Canal

- Filmbank 

Below is a mind map I made that shows all the ways in which an audience can be made for a film.

Our film is vaguely similar to that of 'The Call' and 'The Roommate'. 'The Roommate' was produced by 'Vertigo Entertainment' and was distributed by 'Screen Gems'. I think a companies like these would distribute our film as it is similar to previous ones they've distributed. 

To create a marketing campaign for our work 

• Posters
• PR + Press
• Cast
• Public transport 
• Merchandise 
• Internet 
• Cinema 
• Radio
• TV/DVD

The budget of a film can affect the distribution. For example, if a film has a larger budget, more high profile people can be hired (such as the actors left and right). If these actors are hired, the film is more likely to get more publicity. 

However, these actors are more likely to get hired for a Hollywood blockbuster rather than a UK Independent film, which I believe ours would be. 

I think our opening would be a UK independent film because a UK independent film is usually made completely outside of the major film studio system, which our opening obviously is as we filmed it at Natalia's house. 
Furthermore, our film had no budget at all, and UK independent films have very low budgets. For example, Sixteen (Brown, 2013) had a budget of under £60,000. 

Evaluation 2 - Katie

Evaluation activity 2)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Here is a video of me talking about how our film represents gender/age and how we may attract a target audience, as well as the possible rating for our film.

In our thriller opening we tried to steer away from the norm where the antagonist is a male stalking an innocent female. To do this we made our antagonist female, making our opening already not stereotypical. 
We also wanted our thriller opening to be original. Even though the concept of our idea is quite unoriginal and stereotypical in the thriller genre, we still managed to make ours stand out slightly and made it our own through the use of black and white flashbacks and the fact we have represented gender in a complete different way to usual. 

Evaluation 1 - Katie

Evaluation Activity 1)

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

Here are 9 frames from our thriller opening

In order for our thriller opening to conform to the conventions and forms or real media products, we created our own distributor and production company logos which many companies use in real life, such as 'Disney' or 'Universal'. On the left are the logos we designed for 'Breezeblocks Productions' and 'Clockwork Distributors' and on the right are examples of company logos that are used in films today.

 

At first we wanted the title of our opening to appear at the end, however, we found that by doing that our film opening would have looked more like a trailer, therefore we decided to have our title at the very beginning of our opening.

The only thing we did slightly differently to other thriller movies is that instead of introducing the characters first and showing the credits (director, script writer, etc) we showed the title straight away to immediately get right into the opening. 
Our title includes a mixture of capital and lower case letters  ('DiSoRiEnTaTiOn') because we wanted to make it seem like the whole opening is slightly disorientated. 

In order to do this, we used many flashbacks in our opening. The flashbacks are used when our protagonist gets home and follows the same route as our antagonist, for example: when the protagonist (portrayed by Natalia) walks up the stairs, it cuts to a black and white flashback because the antagonist (portrayed by myself) previously made their way up the stairs, however Natalia's character is completely unaware of this. We got this idea of flashbacks from films such as 'Saving Private Ryan', 'The Notebook', 'The Conjuring' and 'Titanic' where flashbacks are used in the opening scene. The flashbacks may also make the audience feel tense, as they know something the character doesn't. 

                           B&W flashback in our opening

Flashback in 'Titanic'

Furthermore our thriller opening conforms to real film openings through our camera angles and the use of the establishing shot. Our location of our film was the protagonists house and this shot (below to the left) clearly introduces that. This could possibly make the audience watching feel slightly 'creeped out' as this shot may be implying that was is going on inside this particular house could happen in any house, and if this was a real movie and people went to view it in the cinema, it could possibly result in them feeling a slight discomfort in their own home because they may be thinking about what could happen. 

When filming, we got Natalia to hold the camera. It is slightly shaking to portray the fact she is walking. The point of view shot make the audience feel like they are in the protagonists shoes. This may make them feel slightly uneasy and tense, as previously in the opening we have made it clear there is someone in the house. 

Our shot of the house can also make the audience feel tense because from the outside it looks completely normal and ordinary whereas inside they are aware there is a villain, and because the protagonist is so blissfully unaware of what is inside, tension is created. 

The scene we used for our own opening could be compared with a scene from the film 'The Woman in Black' (right) where an establishing shot of the house could result in the audience feeling uncomfortable.




Other shots from our opening create tension, a key convention of a thriller. For example, shot A and B create tension as they indicates the idea of being watched. It is even more tense and uncomfortable for the audience as the protagonist is being watched from a window in their own house, therefore indicates some sort of intrusion. 

Shot A                                                







                             



                             

Shot B

    Also shot C (above on the right) creates tension because it shows the antagonist ripping off a photograph of the protagonist and a friend. They leave the ripped photo of the friend on the floor, taking the bit with the protagonist, which may confuse the audience and leave them to wonder why the antagonist took the photo and what they are going to do with it. This shot also makes it clear that our thriller's sub-genre is a stalker thriller. 

Finally, the fact the antagonists face is never revealed creates tension, as the audience do not know how if they know the person they're stalking, why they're doing it or for how long. It leaves a lot of questions.  

The music we used for our thriller opening is similar to the music in the film 'Sinister'. It creates tension and makes the audience feel slightly on edge and tense. We used music to create the feel of disorientation, for example during the flashback clips we used the sound of a film tape/clicker.

Final Product: Opening To A Thriller

Storyboard animatic

New thriller idea

3 - Point Lighting

In this video we experimented with the 3 - point lighting to see what each individual light would look like if we were to try and use it in our final opening to a thriller film.

3 - point lighting with Katie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW6i6E9tQPk

Our Risk Assessment

Our personal risk assessment for our thriller opening:

We are filming our thriller in on the bus first, therefore we need to be cautious of:

• The public - we will have to alert the public that we are filming
• The possibility of falling off the bus
• Falling over when the bus is moving fast
• Something happening to the camera 
• People getting in the way of our shots

We will then be filming in Natalia's house and there we need to be cautious of:

• Her dog, incase of tripping over when filming
• The table edges
• Broken glass - need to avoid any of us getting cut or hurt by the glass
• Tripping over anything - need to move anything in the way of us
• Tripping over her cat
• Falling up or down the stairs 
• Dropping the camera

Mini Pitch Evaluation: New Idea First Draft

Title: Bystander

Our new idea will also be based at a teenagers house party, instead of it being based on the main characters doing drugs, one of the friends will go upstairs to find the bathroom, when he gets upstairs he sees something that he shouldn't have seen. As he makes his way up he can see a group of dangerous looking teenage boys pulling another boy into a room and quickly shutting the door, before he could hear the boys screaming "Shut up and stay put", just before the door slammed shot one of the bullies saw the bystander watching in disbelief, although he was aware that they were being watched they continued to scare the victim. This was followed by continuous screaming and threatening. The bystander walks away without saying a word. A half an hour passed until one of the bullies left the room and began searching for the bystander. 

'The Breakfast Club' title sequence - Katie

Survey and Mini Pitch - Katie

My Survey 

In order to help my group and I think of ideas for the plot of our thriller opening, I individually created a survey that would help get an audience opinion on what we should consider to make our thriller as best as we can. I asked friends and family members to complete this survey. In total, 15 people completed my survey.

The first question asked the person their age. The majority of people who completed my survey were between the ages of 15-25. 4 out of the 15 that completed the survey said their favourite genre of film was romance (and this turned out to be the most popular genre). Also, most people said the story line is what attracts them to a thriller film, which suggested our group had to have a strong story line in order to attract people to our thriller. 78% of those who took part (11/15) said the story line was the most important thing to consider when making a thriller, and 14% (2 people) said the music was the most important. 

Furthermore, tension is obviously important in a thriller and most people agreed that the music was the main thing that creates the most suspense, while some also said setting creates the most tension. This helped our group because it enabled us to understand how we can create suspense in our own thriller opening (we need an eerie setting and tension filled music to create suspense). 

One of the most important questions in my survey was 'What do you think is the best way for a thriller film to open?'. This was one of the most important questions because our task is to create the opening to a thriller. We want to make ours as best as we can, and by the results of my survey, the best way to start our thriller is in the past. 






(Link to survey results) https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/KwmrtYXkT3MqT62qkg2ajOfpnoru1U8XJ5sf4A3O4DY_3D

Mini Pitch 

Title: Adolescents 

My idea for our thriller focuses on a group of 4 teenagers - mainly zooming in on one boy, age 17-18, who have found themselves on the run from the police. They are located in London (meaning most of the filming would take place in London. I imagine them to be from the Hampstead area). These 4 teenage boys have found themselves caught up in a drug scandal which has resulted in them on the run. 

Visuals and Sound: 

The film would open on a black screen, and you can hear police sirens in the background. Suddenly, a boy appears on the screen. This boy is running down a road at night, sweat covering his face. His pupils would be dilated and his eyes red - it is obvious he is on some sort of drug. The sound of sirens would be echoing in the background, making it clear he is running from the police. The boy then turns a corner. After this I picture a close up shot on this boys face while his head is whipping around looking for his friends, perhaps shouting their names quietly. He is still walking slowly while getting his breath back. While his head is whipping, flashbacks would be shown. 
The first flashback would be of this boy, his 3 friends and 5 other boys (obviously drug dealers) sitting around a table in a second floor grungy flat in Camden. Drugs are on the table. It would then cut back to the boy running. His pace has now started to increase again. The sound of the sirens have got louder and you can now hear the voices of the policemen in the background shouting. The boy is looking back, whipping his head around. 
When he whips his head around for the second time, another flashback occurs. This time, the flashback shows the police bursting into the house. They are shouting and flashing lights. The drug dealers that the 4 boys were involved with were known to the police and wanted. As the police burst in there is a lot of shouting - during this flashback the pace of camera work is slightly sped up. All the boys depart from round the table and run to whatever exit they can. The boy who we have been focusing on is shown shouting to his friends saying "run....get out". He then jumps out of a window and runs. 
It then cuts back to present time. The sound of the sirens and the policemen's voices are getting louder and louder and he feels the police getting closer and closer. The boy starts running faster. He keeps looking back to check he is safe, then turns a corner. As he turns the corner, he slams into someone. The screen then cuts black. 

BBFC - audience research

British Board of Film Classification Research

In order to make sure children are not exposed to unsuitable or harmful content in films and to give consumers information they might need about a particular film before deciding to watch it, the BBFC examines and age rates films before they are released.

Usually, two examiners view a film before a theatrical release. In most cases a Senior Examiner will confirm the examiners recommendation of certification. But if the examiners are in doubt or fail to agree, or if important policy issues are involved, other members of the Board may have to view the film (sometimes even the Director and Presidential team) in order to come to an agreement. Occasionally, specialist advice about the legal acceptability of film content or its potential for harm is needed.

Issues such as horror, dangerous and easily imitable behaviour and more is looked at when making decisions. The theme of the work is also an important consideration, as well as the context, the tone and likely impact of a work on the potential audience also need to be considered.

Every 4-5 years, the BBFC partakes in a major public consultation exercise to find out what the public thinks about the age rating of films before they are released and whether the BBFC's classification standards meet public concerns. 
The BBFC adjusts its standards and criteria in response to any changes the public suggests. 

U Rating: 

PG Rating

 

12 and 12A Rating

 

15 Rating

 

18 Rating