Preliminary TASK

On the 20th of January we started filming our preliminary task. The task set was to create a short film that should be around 30 seconds long, should contain 4 lines of dialogue between two characters. But, we were allowed to change things around to fit our needs, we started by writing storyboards, made a shot list and a list of all the things we would need.

we were quickly briefed on the equipment we would be using and how to use it. After that was all done we cracked on and started filming, we had slates at the beginning of each shot so that wheen it came to editing the footage it would make it much easier to do as it was all in order. we all took different roles within the production.
Josh Mellors (me) acting
Ashley Woodward- organised shots and wrote down the shot lists and orders.
Matt Hall - Camera man
Phillip Creasey - Director
we all took part in directing the production, we all took charge in shot angles such as mid-shots, point of view shots etc. We all had to work together to get the production done to the best standard.


Shot Number Shot Type Notes
1 Establishing Shot Point of view shot down corridor
2 Low angle head shot Shot of the good guy
3 Close Up Close up of guys hand on the door handle
4 Long shot of good guy entering room
5 Over Shoulder shot From good guys perspective
6 2 Shot Good Guy Walking towards the Ghost
7 High Angle Mid Shot of Ghost
8 Low angle Reverse shot of good guy
9 &10 Shot Reverse Shot Exchange of dialogue
11 Mid shot Computers turning off
12 Mid Low angle Looking at good guy
13 Mid shot Computers turning off
14 Mid shot Point of view Looking at ghost fading out


The pre- production involved me and Phill making a story board of the film whilst Ashley and Matt retrieved all of the camera equiptment and crated a shot list.
  here is the story board.




here is the link to the finished video

PRACTICAL TASK

Research:

I had to do individual research towards the genre of a ‘Thriller’ and then I had to research the genre of thrillers and then we decided on a Spy Thriller

      The first film I examined was ‘I-Robot’ it starts with animated title screens which has an eerie type of music playing in the background. The effect of this is to start to add tension to the film before it has started getting into the film. It then adds text to the screen describing the ‘Laws’ that these robots must obey. They are made to look dark and shady, giving an impression of something that is bad. They then fade out and then a cut between what is a dream about two cars stuck under the water and there appears to be a person in each car drowning. We get quick close ups of the main character and then it zooms out. After, we see the main character ‘Will Smith’ being dragged out of the car and then him awakening from his dream. This is all aimed at creating tension and curiosity to the audience of the film.

    These techniques are very similar in most thrillers, as the aim is to keep people guessing and fixated on the film by using techniques to create tension and action. They will usually have some action at the beginning of the film to break the audience straight in to the film.

List of films that I researched

·         I-robot

·         Jurassic Park

·         300

·         Alien

·         Predator 2

·         Hell boy

 They all have very similar attributes when it comes to ‘Thrilling’ the audience and keeping you on the edge of your seat when viewing the movie.

An example of action and tension at the beginning of the movie would be

-300

Genre

Thrillers tend to have protagonists who are usually unaware of the antagonists’ real side. Thrillers can be from murder cases up to a plot being made for a bank heist or anything similar along those lines. There are many types of genres within the Thriller genre itself.

Conspiracy

Crime

Erotic

Political

Physiological

Spy

Supernatural

Techno

These are the main sub genres within Thrillers. After discussion within the group and the locations we could use etc. it was decided that it would be easier and more practical to make a spy Thriller. Because of this we also will be able to do much more with the film in terms of shots, dramatic sequences which will add tension to our opening sequence (a chase for example).




The Planning of our Film.
LOCATION
At first, all four of us when around our school where our location for filming was going to be. We went around assessing where we should do certain shots for the film. Luckily for us the actual setting was perfect for what we intended. With the drive way, the long field and the obstacles around school to make the film more realistic. The pictures below show what parts of the school we used.
  

This is a map of where we ran in the film, also it shows the filming locations easier.
















Storyboard
Before any filming could take place, we had to create a storyboard on the shots we were going to use. We tried to incorporate nearly every shot that we knew off and had been taught earlier on the year by our teacher. Such as Tracking shots, Panning shots, close ups establishing shots etc.
The pictures below shows our story boards we created for our piece. We all took part in this section. Through discussion and drawing it etc.
  


Casting
For the casting in our film, we discussed and came to an agreement that it would be better and more practical to use our self's within the film. This way we could get an experience in using the camera, directing and acting at the same time. Which would be more beneficial for us all.
The people in the film included
Me (Josh Mellors) Undercover policeman
Phillip Creasey- Undercover policeman
Matthew Hall - Suspect.
We also gained help from Phillip Dixon, as he has let us use his car for the car scene.


Mise En Scene
Props- The props we are going to use for the film are replica pistols. This will help us make the film seem more realistic and therefore would earn us marks in the long run.
We originally were going to dress as secret agents from MI5. But because we didn't all have the necessarily clothing we decided under cover police would be the best option.
Below are pictures of the guns we used.





FILMING:


We started filming on the 16th Febuary, we started filming our Thriller at our designated location. It took us around 4 hours to film overall, using all the different settings within our filming location. we all took part in filming, directing and acting. By doing this, we all recieved experience in each role of creating a film widening our skills that we have developed during the study of Media. In some of the higher shots we had to use a large step ladder to get the effects. But to do this we had to ensure it was safe to do so, for example, footing and securing the ladder when someone was up it filming is a way to ensure safety.


These are all of the shots we have done that was made into a table together. It shows all of the shots we have done and when they appear in the film.

	Tracking Shot – (0:27 – 0:31) To give added suspence to the scene as it shows the car racing to catch the suspect.
	Low Angle Shot – (0:52 – 0:54) This shot is used to give more action in the sequence, this is again adding suspence to the shot. Aiming to make the audience stay involved in the film.
	High Angle Shot – (0:58 – 1:03) Again another shot attempting to change things and mix it all up. The aim is that it's different and again is engaging the audience to also make a relation with them to appreciate the tension
	Long Shot – (1:04 – 1:07) a dramatic shot, in an attempt to make the audience become tense as we aimed to make them keep guessing whether the character in this shot will make it in time to catch the suspect.
	Close Up Shot – (1:11 – 1:16) an attempt to make the audience realise the reality that this is now a serious matter and the characters will stop at nothing to get the suspect in custody.

REPRODUCTION

Before we made any official plans and ideas we all sat down and thought about how we could make the footage we had look better, as we wanted to make it look less like the college and more like a deserted location. We found this quiet difficult as the college has signs on buildings that give it away, making it hard to cut them out. In the end we decided to completely re shoot, so this involved creating a completely new story line, new story board and a new location. The new opening scene makes a lot more sense when it comes to telling a story and it includes dialogue. For the titles/ credits I learnt how to use Adobe after Effects and I made some titles to overlay the video and they looked more professional than the first main task as they were at the end of the scene making it look more like a movie trailer.

As we were borrowing the HD camera, canon 550D off the school again we were also able to borrow a boom microphone and a digital recorder. Which really helped us out  becuase  we were able to get the best quality sound as possible.

After doing the reshoot during our inset day off from college, we sat down in our next media class and got to work editing the footage as from doing is we only had a week to re edit.

This put a lot of pressure onto the whole group, (mainly Me, Ashley and Josh) as we had to completely start over so we could get our high grades we wanted. After I had downloaded a trial version of Sony Vegas onto the school computer I set Ashley to start editing the clips whilst I designed a ‘Suspect 7’ Logo and Josh and Phil got on with completing the story board.

Overall I feel that we managed to get the very most out of the final edit and all of us and I especially am very proud of it and I’m very glad that we re did the whole thing, even thought it was a rush to get it finished and a very stressful time. I feel it was very well presented and that it will push our grades up from the first task.

 

EVALUATION    (PLEASE NOTE THE PICTURES DO NOT SHOW UP ON THE BLOG, BUT IF YOU CLICK ON THEM THEY WILL APPEAR IN A BROWSER)

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

Our media product stays on similar guidelines with typical media films. For example, our film starts by changing the structural narrative. It is done by putting the end of the film at the beginning so it can then feed off from and goes through the story to catch up with the first sequence, which is the end. It was an attempt to get an elliptical editing edition to our film but not as dominant as for example ‘Pulp Fiction’ which has many cuts to different times within the film.

   It also has some techniques that are common to a typical film, for example; the title screens that appear throughout the production showing the audience the characters and people involved (us). This is quiet common in films so this is why we edited it in.

How does your media product reflect certain social groups

The Villain in our production is a government agent. He is dressed to fit the stereotypical appearance that one would assume of a government agent. The idea of a man in a suit usually means that there are untrustworthy things going on. With this being said, the posture that the character portrays shows his authority which reflects to the audience that he is the boss of this operation. The way that this character speaks makes him seem confident and dominant. When we were filming shots of the villain we only used shot reverse shots as he was only in the scene for a short amount of time. This also shows the audience that he will be more involved throughout the rest of the film.

The main character “Suspect 7” played by Matthew Hall is the protagonist in this film. This character is dressed formal/casually to give an effect of importance to the audience. This was done by making him look like a usual common guy. But the fact of the matter is by the end he turns out to be much more than what people would be expecting. The mise – en – scene in the picture above shows the character holding a briefcase. This shows that something important is in that case and the audience are instantly engaged to the sequence as human nature applies and we want to know what is in the case. The shots used in the opening a sequence towards this character are mainly typical in these kinds of scenes. We used shots such as mid shot, point of view shot and tracking shot. These shots were used to show the target audience what the character was feeling emotionally and physically, also to show his tension especially with the point of view shot when he hears a stick off a tree snapping when he is being followed.

The third character played by me, is recognised by the audience almost immediately when I am first seen. I am playing a mercenary/Assassin and the audience gathers this from the beginning of the sequence. The first time you see him is when he is following “suspect 7” and hiding behind trees and bushes and sneaking around and following “suspect 7”. My clothing has significant effect on my character as it shows me trying to blend in slightly but also trying to not look suspicious. My camouflage coat and dark jeans make me blend into the location. Also, this is why the location is very important as if we were shooting in the middle of a town center I would not blend in as much as being in the wild. Another section of the mise-en-scene is the props; I had a gun which once again fits right into my character of being a killer. This shows the audience that I am serious and has been paid to get rid of “suspect 7”. When it came to the filming we didn’t want me to be in all of the shots, this is mainly because I am  trying to blend in, it wouldn’t make sense for me to be constantly in the shots as I am trying to also bide my time in this scene. We do use one great camera angle that really shows my character without him being in it. We used a point of view shot of the assassin hiding behind some trees, he then steps on a twig and pulls the camera further into the trees when “suspect 7” turns around. This is to give an effect of a first person experience to the situation at hand.

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

Because we are a non-funded group of film makers a media institution that might take interest in what we do would be EM media, as they are the biggest media institution in the east midlands for film making. They also look for new talent to star in their products. And if this film were to get funded then this is likely a company that would produce and distribute it. Although even though I highly doubt we would be classed as new ‘acting talent’ it still applies to our production.

  Another company could possibly be universal pictures, as they have distributed films such as ‘the Bourne Identity’ which was made into a trilogy and many other thriller films that are all based around a similar theme of one man being wanted by a government and is hunted down.

Who would be the audience for your Media product and why?

I believe that the audience for our thriller film would be mainly a male audience as stereotypically action and violence is more themed for men. But It would never mean women would not watch it also. An age group for our film though would be probably teenagers and young adults. With a predicted age rating of around ‘12’ if we made the film completely, we can assume that this would be a reasonable age group to be aiming for. But even though this would be our main target audience it is undoubtedly certain that our actually audience would range from all ages.

How did we attract/Address our audience?

We had to figure out how we were going to address the audience to make them more inclined to watch the film. We didn’t want to make it boring but we had to try and get as much detail towards the characters as we could. So to make the audience engage more with the audience we added things in such as the briefcase that ‘Suspect 7’ was holding. Also I was playing the mercenary following him. These things allow the audience to get involved with the film and hopefully will not make it boring. But, as these things happen the audience can gain some sort of idea on the characters and what they possibly might be doing in the film.

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

I have learnt many things from shooting this film. I have learn how to use a canon 550D HD ready camera, I have learnt how to get the best shots for a scene as well as learning how to get a good effect of tension in a shot with focusing from the background to the foreground, as shown in one the over the shoulder shots in the film.

   I have also learnt how to use Adobe after effects and other movie editing programmes. I have never really used them before I did this project so this was a great learning experience for me as I was able to trim video files, add them together, add the soundtracks and render it at the end to make it all one file.

   And If I link it back to our original preliminary task I would say that we have all come a long way in our camera and editing skills. We have all learnt how to film better, how to use the equipment we have been given, whether it is a ‘Boom mic’ or a light reflector. We have all been able to add this into our productions and also how to get the best effects from them.