To understand and analyse how successful our thriller was, we asked a variety of people for their opinions on it. The results that we got we will try to show in various ways using different techniques.
We asked a variety of people about our thriller, but took responses from the questions which we asked 3 people. The 3 people are from different age groups, 17, 21 and 38. Two of these 3 people were female and the other was male. Below are our results;
What did you enjoy the most about the thriller?
Female, 17
"I enjoyed the scene where the girl was walking, trying to get a signal and then running back. I liked this because the editing matched the pace of plot, and built up tension."
Male, 21
"I liked the shots of the stalker's eyes, as it made us realise that the stalker was following the girls, and getting closer and closer to them."
Female, 38
"I like the opening, as I could see what was happening with the stalker, whilst the girls were setting off. This made me understand that the two sets of characters were related, and hinted at them meeting at some point in the film."
How do you think we could have improved the opening?
Female, 17
"I would have liked to have seen more of the other two girls, rather than the main one. I didn't really get to know them that much, and then they disappeared."
Male, 21
"The stalker's weapon was a bit unrealistic. I don't see how he managed to attack the two girls with his bare hands and a small piece of rope."
Female, 38
"The section where the girls walk from the house to the camp site is slightly slow. Maybe it would have been better to quicken it a bit."
Would you watch the remainder of the film?
Female, 17
"Yes, I want to see if the main girl dies or not."
Male, 21
"Yes. I want to know who the stalker is, and what happened to the two girls that went missing."
Female, 38
"No. Unfortunately, I don't see how the story could develop and continue for an extra hour or so."
Judging by the response from the three participants, the thriller opening was a success. As suspected, it was least successful with the eldest participant - the thriller was not aimed at her age group, therefore, we believed that she would be least likely to enjoy the thriller.
We asked these participants, and the others that watched the thriller, to state a few words that summed up our thriller. Using these words, I created a wordle, which clearly shows all the words used, and their popularity.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Friday, 11 March 2011
Evaluation of Finished Production - Question seven
Looking back at the preliminary task, What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the product?
Above is our preliminary task, when watching it back I relaised there were many differences between this and our thriller opening. The quality of the video is not as good as what the thriller opening was, and we can see big improvments between the two videos.
Sound was a particular problem for us during our preliminary exercise, when filming we did not know how loud or quietly we would have to speak for the camera to pick up voices from a far distance, so at some points sound is barely noticable and at other times it is like the characters are shouting. Also when we was editing our preliminary task as we did not understand how the sound on the computer, we were not sure if the computer was defficient or if we had not turned the sound up. Either way, as a result of this when watching the finished piece on youtube we noticed that in some placed you could hear the director saying 'Go!' there was lack of continuity and some of the sound had been cut off. When editing our Thriller we made sure we knew how the sound worked and knew that we was at a computer with fully functioning speakers, also our skills with using the computers had developed meaning we could create sound bridges so sound from a previous piece of footage continued on, We also learnt dissolves and fades with the sound so that our thriller flowed well and the sound was not out of place with what was on screen.
The variety of shots we used in our preliminary task where very little compared to the number of shots we used during our thriller. Also the shots used in our preliminary exercise were at a poor quality for example, the pan shot could sometimes be too slow and the the characters could walk out of shot, or it would pan to fast meaning the characters would again not be in shot.
The image above is a point in the preliminary task where the two characters where spread too far apart within the short meaning it was difficult for the cameraman to keep them both in shot, which thus meant this girl at the back drifted out of shot. However due to lack of time this had to be included in our preliminary task as we did not have time to film over it.
However in our actual thriller we made sure that all 3 characters could be seen at one point and explained to our actors not to all step over the gate at the same time but slowly after each other, this left a small enough gap for all 3 people to be seen but not a too bigger gap so that some characters were off screen whilst others were left behind.
Since completeing our Preliminary task our skills developed rapidly and using final cut express and using the camera together became a lot easier as the technology wasnt so new to us when it come to filming our thriller. The adjusting of the sound took some getting used to but we worked it out and overall learnt new editing tecniques and understood new and different types of transitions.
Above is our preliminary task, when watching it back I relaised there were many differences between this and our thriller opening. The quality of the video is not as good as what the thriller opening was, and we can see big improvments between the two videos.
Our preliminary task had not been prepared as well as what our main thriller had and we did not out as much time or effort into what we was doing with it. This lead to us only have a half completed storyboard to work from and no clue to the plot of our preliminary task. When filming our preliminary tasks many of the shots were repeated as we had not written down the variety of shots which could of been used. When we was making the storyboard to our thriller we made sure there was lots of detail added to it so we had a variet of shots and angles and it would not become boring. Although we did not completely stick to our storyboard when filming as we thought of better more exciting ways to films.
When looking at the Prliminary exercise i noticed below that where comments are left their was one dislike to to it although there was no comments explaining why they had disliked it, although it may be that there was no story to our preliminary task it was mainly people walking.
Storyboard to Preliminary Task; When looking at the Prliminary exercise i noticed below that where comments are left their was one dislike to to it although there was no comments explaining why they had disliked it, although it may be that there was no story to our preliminary task it was mainly people walking.
Storyboard to our Thriller opening;
Sound was a particular problem for us during our preliminary exercise, when filming we did not know how loud or quietly we would have to speak for the camera to pick up voices from a far distance, so at some points sound is barely noticable and at other times it is like the characters are shouting. Also when we was editing our preliminary task as we did not understand how the sound on the computer, we were not sure if the computer was defficient or if we had not turned the sound up. Either way, as a result of this when watching the finished piece on youtube we noticed that in some placed you could hear the director saying 'Go!' there was lack of continuity and some of the sound had been cut off. When editing our Thriller we made sure we knew how the sound worked and knew that we was at a computer with fully functioning speakers, also our skills with using the computers had developed meaning we could create sound bridges so sound from a previous piece of footage continued on, We also learnt dissolves and fades with the sound so that our thriller flowed well and the sound was not out of place with what was on screen.
The variety of shots we used in our preliminary task where very little compared to the number of shots we used during our thriller. Also the shots used in our preliminary exercise were at a poor quality for example, the pan shot could sometimes be too slow and the the characters could walk out of shot, or it would pan to fast meaning the characters would again not be in shot.
Since completeing our Preliminary task our skills developed rapidly and using final cut express and using the camera together became a lot easier as the technology wasnt so new to us when it come to filming our thriller. The adjusting of the sound took some getting used to but we worked it out and overall learnt new editing tecniques and understood new and different types of transitions.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Evaluation of Finished Production - Question six
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the thriller?
Monday, 28 February 2011
Evaluation of Finished Production - Question five
How did we attract/address our audience?
I attracted an audience in many different ways, one of the ways was through facebook, i used this to publish my survey on to it, so i had a wider variety of people acknowledging thrillers, and i particular our thriller. I feel that this worked. This seemed to work reasonably well as i did get a few responses, however not as many as i would of liked.
There are different ways in which we kept the audience was kept engaged through the thriller. We done this by creating suspense and tension which made the person want to keep watching to find out what happened next. In the previous question i mentioned using survey monkey to help find out what the audience would like to see involved in a thriller. We used female actors, and we used the age of which was most popular with the survey results this meant that the viewers could feel more involved and relate to what was going on. Also all of our actors were of similar age to those who we want to watch our thriller. As we used teenagers in our thriller it means that the audience will be able to feel our main characters fear and be able to imagine themselves in the same situation. We tried to make our characters look like they are from a normal working class background, this meant it was easier for the audience to relate to them as they live the same type of lifestyle. I think i used the information from my survey monkey results quiet effectively to produce a better outcome on the thriller. I took into consideration what people wanted to see, and who seemed more interested in thrillers and worked around it.
The location for our thriller was picked rather carefully and we believe that we picked a good setting, we thought it was very effective as it was eerie. We had decided to film over Eastbrook End Country Park as it was very deserted, with the location picked it added to the mysterious effect and added to the tension which we had already created. The trees and the bushes, made it seem very eerie and scary as they were looming over the people and made them look small and vulnerable. The setting was in some ways perfect as it was deserted, it made it seem that if the protagonist was to run away they had no where to run, as their was a lack of space and would be hunted down. Although, the tree's were surrounding the people, they were closely packed together, this made less space for the protagonist to run, and made it look like she was cornered.
From the image above you can see there is little space for the protagonist to run, this can help build up the suspense and the feeling that the individual is being trapped.
We ended our thriller on a cliffhanger, this would encourage the person watching want to continue watching the thriller. This is because from the thriller which they had seen it made them ask a lot of questions, such as 'Where have the girls friends gone?' 'Who was on the phone?' 'Who is the antagonist?' 'What does he want with the girl?' 'Will the girl survive?' 'What has he done/ going to do with her?'
I attracted an audience in many different ways, one of the ways was through facebook, i used this to publish my survey on to it, so i had a wider variety of people acknowledging thrillers, and i particular our thriller. I feel that this worked. This seemed to work reasonably well as i did get a few responses, however not as many as i would of liked.
There are different ways in which we kept the audience was kept engaged through the thriller. We done this by creating suspense and tension which made the person want to keep watching to find out what happened next. In the previous question i mentioned using survey monkey to help find out what the audience would like to see involved in a thriller. We used female actors, and we used the age of which was most popular with the survey results this meant that the viewers could feel more involved and relate to what was going on. Also all of our actors were of similar age to those who we want to watch our thriller. As we used teenagers in our thriller it means that the audience will be able to feel our main characters fear and be able to imagine themselves in the same situation. We tried to make our characters look like they are from a normal working class background, this meant it was easier for the audience to relate to them as they live the same type of lifestyle. I think i used the information from my survey monkey results quiet effectively to produce a better outcome on the thriller. I took into consideration what people wanted to see, and who seemed more interested in thrillers and worked around it.
The location for our thriller was picked rather carefully and we believe that we picked a good setting, we thought it was very effective as it was eerie. We had decided to film over Eastbrook End Country Park as it was very deserted, with the location picked it added to the mysterious effect and added to the tension which we had already created. The trees and the bushes, made it seem very eerie and scary as they were looming over the people and made them look small and vulnerable. The setting was in some ways perfect as it was deserted, it made it seem that if the protagonist was to run away they had no where to run, as their was a lack of space and would be hunted down. Although, the tree's were surrounding the people, they were closely packed together, this made less space for the protagonist to run, and made it look like she was cornered.
From the image above you can see there is little space for the protagonist to run, this can help build up the suspense and the feeling that the individual is being trapped.
We ended our thriller on a cliffhanger, this would encourage the person watching want to continue watching the thriller. This is because from the thriller which they had seen it made them ask a lot of questions, such as 'Where have the girls friends gone?' 'Who was on the phone?' 'Who is the antagonist?' 'What does he want with the girl?' 'Will the girl survive?' 'What has he done/ going to do with her?'
Evaluation of Finished Production - Question four
Who would be the audience for our media product?
Previously i have done some research into who could be the thrille's audience by creating a survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/. This enabled me to discover the age group which be more likely to watch our thriller. I had only recieved 8 responses on my survey after posting it to popular social networks such as facebook and twitter, many people did not reply. This means my results were not as reliable as i would of liked them to be, as i would of liked at least 30 or 40 responses.
Our thriller can be watched by anyone however will have a more popular audience. It can relate to different people in different ways. The target audience would more likely to be females between the ages of 17-24 as this was the largest age group, of people who answered in my thriller survey. I think this is because they can relate to our female protagonist who is a teenager, and they may be able to put themselves in her situation, and feel that she is weak and vulnerable.
Previously i have done some research into who could be the thrille's audience by creating a survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/. This enabled me to discover the age group which be more likely to watch our thriller. I had only recieved 8 responses on my survey after posting it to popular social networks such as facebook and twitter, many people did not reply. This means my results were not as reliable as i would of liked them to be, as i would of liked at least 30 or 40 responses.
Our thriller can be watched by anyone however will have a more popular audience. It can relate to different people in different ways. The target audience would more likely to be females between the ages of 17-24 as this was the largest age group, of people who answered in my thriller survey. I think this is because they can relate to our female protagonist who is a teenager, and they may be able to put themselves in her situation, and feel that she is weak and vulnerable.
To ensure that the audience were interested in the thriller, in my survey i asked the question 'what do you think makes a good thriller'. I got a few different answers, however as not many people completed my survey it made it difficult for me to create wordle that had numerous and various words in it. Although saying that, below are some of the answers which were given;
I think if i am to use survey monkey again iwill encourage more people to complete my thriller, and upload it onto various social networking sites for a wider variety of results. I will also tell people about my survey and ask them if they could fill it in for me, if i gave them the web address
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Evaluation of Finished Product - Question three
What type of media institution might distribute your media production and why?
There are quite a few variaties of media institutions which might like to distribute our media production, as they fit their criteria for a thriller rather well. In order to find out which one may be more likely to distribute our thriller i done some research into the different types of production companies which have previously been known to produce thrillers, such as warner brothers, dimension films, Summit productions and Universal Studio.
There are quite a few variaties of media institutions which might like to distribute our media production, as they fit their criteria for a thriller rather well. In order to find out which one may be more likely to distribute our thriller i done some research into the different types of production companies which have previously been known to produce thrillers, such as warner brothers, dimension films, Summit productions and Universal Studio.
Question 3
View more presentations from SarahWarnock.
Evaluation of Finished Production - Question two
There were very few actors in our thriller opening, this was because people who wanted to participate in our short film were very limited. We used 4 females over all in our thriller however we did use a female to play the male antagonist. We tried to get the females to try and look as weak and vulnerable as possible, so that they fitted their characters better. However a female critic could argue that we are being prejudice by making the females look weak towards the man, like he is more dominating. We had originally planned for a male to play the part of the antagonist, but after some confusion this had to be changed. This means a female critic could also protest that it is unfair for one female to be portrayed as a dominant male, and the others looking weak and vulnerable.
The character on the left of the picture was the protagonist during our 2 minute thriller. She is shown as a 'normal' teenager in a normal situation, from what she knew she was simply going out with her friends. She could be seen as having a normal life, however in the thriller she is portrayed as quiet weak and vulnerable, to make it obvious that she is the victim of the stalker. She seems to be from a working class background as she is not over dressed and looks like an average teenager. Her sexuality is unknown and also irrelivant
We did not put much thought into ethnic minoritites as we didnt think it would make of a difference which ethnicity our actors were. However we did try to refrain from using any prejudice or racist language or remarks as this could cause a problem if the thriller was to be watched as a film. Although, by having the protagonist as a mixed race person this could be seen as a racist remark as it could look as though the thriller is suggesting that mixed race people are weaker and more vulnerable than others. However by saying that we could say that if we had put a mixed race of black person as our antagonist it could be suggested that we are stereotyping as our antagonist was also wearing a 'hoodie'.
We felt that sexuality was not relivant throughout the thriller and it was not revealed at any stage. Although the pictures of the protagonist on the antagonists wall are placed in a heart shape, it may seem that the antagonist is in love with the thriller, however we only done this to portray the antagonists obsession with the protagonist, as we do not know the sex of the antagonist it is irrelivant of what their sexuality is.
Our thriller is not likely to be watched by younger children as it can be seen as innapropriate and too disturbing or frightening for them. The teenagers in our thriller are portrayed as 'normal' teens this means our thriller is more for the adolenscent age catagory, As we show the girls as 'working class' and normal, the audience should be able to relate to them better as the characters are 'ordinary' making the audience more involved in the thriller.
The character on the left of the picture was the protagonist during our 2 minute thriller. She is shown as a 'normal' teenager in a normal situation, from what she knew she was simply going out with her friends. She could be seen as having a normal life, however in the thriller she is portrayed as quiet weak and vulnerable, to make it obvious that she is the victim of the stalker. She seems to be from a working class background as she is not over dressed and looks like an average teenager. Her sexuality is unknown and also irrelivant
The person in the centre of the image is the antagonist, we do not know much about this character, this causes the effect of an enigma and the scary effect which causes an ominous effect.
Finally the other two people in the image were the protagonists friends, they were also 'normal' teenagers and we didn't dig deep into their characters. Their part in the story was to keep the story flowing . Like the protagonist they are working class and their sexuality is not exposed in the thriller. Not much is revealed about these two.
We did not put much thought into ethnic minoritites as we didnt think it would make of a difference which ethnicity our actors were. However we did try to refrain from using any prejudice or racist language or remarks as this could cause a problem if the thriller was to be watched as a film. Although, by having the protagonist as a mixed race person this could be seen as a racist remark as it could look as though the thriller is suggesting that mixed race people are weaker and more vulnerable than others. However by saying that we could say that if we had put a mixed race of black person as our antagonist it could be suggested that we are stereotyping as our antagonist was also wearing a 'hoodie'.
We felt that sexuality was not relivant throughout the thriller and it was not revealed at any stage. Although the pictures of the protagonist on the antagonists wall are placed in a heart shape, it may seem that the antagonist is in love with the thriller, however we only done this to portray the antagonists obsession with the protagonist, as we do not know the sex of the antagonist it is irrelivant of what their sexuality is.
Our thriller is not likely to be watched by younger children as it can be seen as innapropriate and too disturbing or frightening for them. The teenagers in our thriller are portrayed as 'normal' teens this means our thriller is more for the adolenscent age catagory, As we show the girls as 'working class' and normal, the audience should be able to relate to them better as the characters are 'ordinary' making the audience more involved in the thriller.
Evaluation of Finished Product - Question one
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Below is a powerpoint on what conventions we used in our thriller, i uploaded this powerpoint onto slideshare. This is shown below;
Below is a powerpoint on what conventions we used in our thriller, i uploaded this powerpoint onto slideshare. This is shown below;
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Analysis of our finished thriller
Today we finished piecing together our thriller and had placed the music on it. We believe that it has gone well, is at a high standard and we are very happy with it. Looking over the aspects needed in a good construction of the short film we believe we used all of them, these include;
- Holding a shot steady
- USing a variety of shot distances
- Framing a shot
- Shooting appropriate material
- Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figures, lighting, objects and setting
- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
- Using varied shot transitions and captions
- Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task
Futhermore to make our thriller seem more realistic when editing it and placing in names of the cinematographer or the smaller characters. This was to make our film look more professional instead of repeating the same name, as it makes it look like more people were involved in the development of the film
Friday, 18 February 2011
Final Tweeks to the film
Today we finished the adjusting little things on the thriller, we tried to make it flow more naturally and look more proffessional so that the music was in time with what you could see. We made sure that all shots and transitions ran smoothly, we used dissolves and fades in a fades out on both the music and the images. This enabled the music to gradually fade out and fade in instead of changing to abruplty and not soud as good. Some pieces of music in the film increased in volume to much, however by using a tool on final cut express we could avoid this, by placing pink dots on the sounds bar we could drag them up or down increasing or decreasing the sound, this is shown below. Also some parts of our thriller was cut out to avoid it from being to long and so that we could fit the opening credits in.
Dissolve;
Final Cut Express;
Credits;
Dissolve;
Final Cut Express;
Credits;
Finishing and Uploading
Today myself and ashleigh completed putting the music on the ident whilst Connor made some finishing touches to the music on the thriller. WE asked some class members what they thought of the thriller and then uploaded it onto youtube. However when watching it on youtube we noticed there was a glitch in part of it. This must of occurred when uploading to youtube, however we will have a look at it in tomorrows lesson. Now that we have finished editing and the 2 minute thriller is complete I can start evaluating our work.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Finished Product of the ident
Today whilst connor was double checking all the editing of our thriller, Ashleigh and myself added the music which i had created on Garaband onto the ident. We think they work well with each other as the image in a sense is sy-fy due to the robot which is futuristic and the music is screechy, like aliens. I think they correspond well together. Below is our finished ident ;
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Adding the music
Today in class connor made the opening credits for our thriller whilst myself and ashleigh added together the last bits of the thriller. By two of us editing the thriller together we could discuss what we thought could be good or bad for the final outcome. After school we then returned to finish adding music to the thriller, we watched it all together and are very pleased with the final outcome.
New Participants
Below is a slideshow of the people involved in the thriller created on one true media;
1) Georgia Wigley - Protagonist
2) Hannah Sharples - Friend
3) Ashleigh Hay - Friend
4) Connor Murray - Group Member (Director)
5) Sarah Warnock - Antagonist
6)Hollie Tuvey Group member
1) Georgia Wigley - Protagonist
2) Hannah Sharples - Friend
3) Ashleigh Hay - Friend
4) Connor Murray - Group Member (Director)
5) Sarah Warnock - Antagonist
6)Hollie Tuvey Group member
Final version of our ident
Below is the final outcome of our ident. The music on it was produced by myself on garageband and the idea of the image was thought up by Connor. The Ident is very well arranged as the music and the image combined help set out expectations for the rest of the thriller.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Plans for today
Connor, Ashleigh and myself hope to spend the majority of the day editing our thriller, we will be editing for 9.00am to 10.35 am and again from 3.00pm to 5.00pm. We are hoping that in this time our thriller will come together and we would have put all the music over the top aswell.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Finishing Filming
Today we finished all of the filming needed for our two minute thriller, we worked quickly but proffessioinaly in order to get this done as we feel like we are running out of time. We filmed alot of this footage many times to make sure it was filmed to perfection and we wont have to film it again when editing. Here is an image of us filming;
Friday, 11 February 2011
NEw opening credits
As we have had to change some of our actors it means we have also had to change the opening sequence to our thriller.
1: Panoptic Productions present
2: A film by Connor Murray
3: Starring
Georgia Wigley
Sarah Warnock
5: Also starring
Hannah Sharples
Ashleigh Hay
6: Edited by Hollie Tuvey
Connor Murray
Sarah Warnock
Ashleigh Hay
6: Music by Sarah Warnock
7: Cinematography by Hollie Tuvey
8: Producers Sarah Warnock
Connor Murray
Ashleigh Hay
9: Directed by Connor Murray
10: LOST SIGNAL
1: Panoptic Productions present
2: A film by Connor Murray
3: Starring
Georgia Wigley
Sarah Warnock
5: Also starring
Hannah Sharples
Ashleigh Hay
6: Edited by Hollie Tuvey
Connor Murray
Sarah Warnock
Ashleigh Hay
6: Music by Sarah Warnock
7: Cinematography by Hollie Tuvey
8: Producers Sarah Warnock
Connor Murray
Ashleigh Hay
9: Directed by Connor Murray
10: LOST SIGNAL
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Filming the graphic match
After school we went back to the loaction where filming was taking place and we got georgia to sit in the computer chair, we was filming her part of the graphic match which is when she is on facebook, she needed to typ a status which is a amain part to a thriller as it is how the antagonist knows where she is going, however as the status could not be seen in this part of the thriller she typed anything randomly as she kept making mistakes when doing it properly. The camera angle then changed to a point of view shot when she got a notification leading her onto her picture which we zoomed into, when we zoomed out we was in the antagonists room where he was sticking the same picture to a collage of pictures he had of her on his wall in a love heart shape. We felt this worked very well and was very effecient making our thriller look more realistic and proffesional.
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