what have we learned from making our preliminary task to the final production?

From our preliminary production to the final product, I learnt a lot of things concerning camerawork and editing. For example in the preliminary task, the quality of the shots was not to the best standard as the camera was fairly shaky and the audio was not as loud as it could have been.  However when producing our final production the quality of what we recorded was to a much higher standard as we learnt to use the tripod to make the camera movements much smoother. In editing we also managed to decrease the amount of errors in the final production, as in the preliminary task the video ended abruptly and did not work however in the final task we took time on our editing and made sure that the video flows well and is edited so it looks as good as possible. In both tasks we also had to use camera techniques such as the 180 degree rule, match-on-action and shot/reverse shot. I believe these became smoother in the final production as our editing and overall camera skills had improved so the techniques looked better.

completed productin + directors commentary

this is our completed production with the directors commentary afterwards.

what have we learned about technologies when constructing this product

In the construction of this project, I gained a greater understanding of how to use the camera overall, for example I became more comfortable with the layout of the cameras features which made most of our shots much easier and quicker to film.

The tripod we used was also helpful in developing our thriller opening as it made the shots we filmed appear more smooth in the final cut than if we had just held the camera with our hands, I simply learnt how to mobilise and use the tripod more easily during this production.

This is a screenshot from my blog; throughout the coursework I used the website ‘Blogger’ to post my preliminary task and evaluation, all the planning, the props/script etc., our final production and the overall evaluation.

This is a screenshot from pinnacle, the editing software we used to edit the final version of our production, during this production I learnt how to use new features in the software and improved my editing skills overall. Unfortunately we could not use the software unless we logged into a specific account on the computer which was obviously inconvenient somewhat.

There was also a problem accessing Youtube , the video publishing software we needed to post our final production on, as the school blocked access to it .

what is our audience for this production? how did we attract this audience?

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what kind of media institute would distribute our work?

A production company puts together all of the film, this will be from the funds that are available. They will also select the actors to be chosen to perform a certain role and who to direct a movie. if the production company is bigger than they will be able to get the bigger name actors to perform the roles as they have more of a attractive name. The production company essentially puts everything in place for a movie to happen. For a film such as ours it would probably be funded by several companies in order for it to reduce the risk in case of a loss. This can be funded by projects that are set such as the uk film industry or by external production companies that are willing to take a risk. With a movie like ours, in an ideal world we would have a top class actor but the realistic choice would be an up and coming actor or somebody who is lesser known on order to attract them to the production.

For our production company logo we have chosen to design it ourselves and make it three m’s coming together. We have done this as it is a fairly memorable logo so people will remember it. The name we have chosen is ‘triple m productions’ this is a simple name and is chosen because it represents the first letter of the name of the three people involved in the production. We also chose the use of black and white for the colours in order to represent good and evil’ in our production and to establish to the audience that this will be a thriller movie of some sorts.

In our production we have put the name of the production company first as this is always the most important name to put in as they have financed and put the film together. You will then have their name again at the end of the titles. Just before the end you will have the name of the director in order to show who has made it so the audience can appreciate who has done the work with directing the movie. in terms of the actors you will have the headline actor first on the titles and will only show the main characters not the smaller parts. The main titles will also show the screenplay workers and costume design and also editors for example.

How does our media depict certain social groups?

prop list

Props:

Suit – Worn by Sykes to immediately give the impression he is a detective/law enforcement officer.

Police badge (fake) – Helps the viewer when recognising Sykes as a detective.

Fake gun – Emphasises position of authority Sykes has as a law enforcement officer.

Tape – this is used to tape over John White’s mouth in the first scene

bag-shows Sykes has lots of important 

Character list

Characters:

Crimson- a dark serial killer who is on the run from the police. Character is dressed in all black to add to his suspicious nature. Similar build and intelligence level to the Protagonist. This character is highly skilled with weapons such as knives and will use this to his advantage. If we were to make this as a movie I would get Kevin Spacey to play this character. This is because of his role in Se7en where he plays a dark character and plays the role very well being suspicious and sinister throughout.

Adrian Sykes- this is the main protagonist of the movie. He is a highly trained detective with a high intelligence level. He wants to get revenge for the death of his Brother-in –law and will do whatever it takes to kill Catch and kill crimson. This character is of a similar build to our main Antagonist and is of similar intelligence. This means that the characters are equally matched so that we never know who is going to come out on top. I would have Joseph Gordon Levitt playing our Protagonist. I would do this because he is of a similar build to Kevin Spacey but also because he is mid 30’s so is an ideal age for a detective who is the top of his trade.

John White- a detective who is being killed by Crimson in a horrific way. This character is an ordinary detective with no particular special features. He is vulnerable to Crimson as he is able to out think him and so has him in a position where he can kill. This character is the brother in law of a highly intelligent detective who in turn will be out to get revenge on Crimson for killing his brother in law. I would choose Wade Williams to play this role as he plays the role of an imposing figure in Prison Break but turns out to be a very soft and gentle character, similar to the character we are depicting in ‘mortem’.

Police officer- this character is a cameo and tells Detective Sykes that he won’t want to go down the alley. This character should be an ordinary officer/detective but not a main character. For this charecter i would have David Oyewolo to play this role as I have seen his acting skills previously in 'Selma' and 'rise of the planet of the apes' and feel as though he is capable of giving a good performance in every role he undertakes so feel he is suited to this minor role.

Script

Shot opens by fading to black then reappearing with Det Adrian Sykes sat writing at a desk

Then we cut to Crimson Daray who calls Sykes

We then cut back to Sykes who is writing at a desk then picks up the phone

Sykes: "Hello"

Sykes is silent as he is told about the murder of a family member

"There's been a murder down thew back of old street. you need to get here, now!"

Fade to Sykes arriving at the scene, a hooded figure follows him

Sykes pauses as his phone rings, crimson is right behind him

Crimson: "Hello..."

Yolo Brielz turns around to see Crimson isn’t there

Crimson attacks and strangles Sykes

shot list

Shot list

1. Opens with ‘triple m productions logo
2. shot opens with medium panning shot of Sykes at a desk
3. shot then shows close up of Sykes answering ringing phone.
4. we cut to a shot of Crimson in a long shot in dark lighting 
5. we cut back to a long tracking shot of Sykes walking out of the room.
6. we have an ellipses edit and then show Sykes arriving at the scene
7. ellipses edit to then show a tracking shot of Sykes walking down the road being followed
8. cut to show Sykes walking down the alleyway in a long-shot being followed by Crimson
9. long shot of Sykes' reaction to no murder.
10. close up of Sykes ringing back the number he had got information of a murder from.
11. medium shot of Crimson attacking Sykes

synopsis

Synopsis – Media AS level:

2011 - A deranged psychopath has committed 10 murders in the last year, all of which are the family members of detective Adrian Sykes. the mind games have been going on for some time and Sykes is out to try and catch his killer.
Sykes receives a phone call telling him there has been a murder when in fact there hasn't and lures him out. Sykes is exposed and is followed by psychopath Crimson Deray. the phone rings again, Sykes answers and Crimson comes in to capture the detective. Sykes.

AS student thrilller analysis

Student Thriller Analysis: Locked In

The opening shot shows an out of focus long shot of a street and some street lights, there is also a white overlay title placed in the bottom left corner contrasting the dark sky background, a convention of thrillers is the consistent use of black and white. This then quickly fades out to a full screen title with the same white font and a black background.

 After the full screen title fades out a map of Asia appears with Beijing pointed out, a line then stretches across to London which suggests this is the setting of the film (an urban city, again a convention of thrillers) but also that the main character is from China and has traveled to England for whatever reason. Some non diegetic upbeat aboriginal music begins to play also which adds unease to the film.

We then cut to another full screen title with the same font and background, this then swiftly fades to an extreme long shot of the moon in the sky, the fact that the rest of the screen is black and there is a tiny piece of the white moon links to the title 'locked in', which is then shown as an overlay title in the next establishing shot of another street which is again out of focus.

The camera then zooms in on a man walking and then tracks his movement slightly, then it cuts to a medium close-up of him still walking and then to a medium shot from a low angle as he walks into an alleyway, the editing pace was very quick for these shots as none stayed on the screen for over 3 seconds.

Then there is an overview shot of a girl lying on her side either knocked out or dead, suggesting she is 'locked in' somewhere and her murder/kidnapping is a main part in the plot of the movie, we then cut back to a close up of the man as he walks down the alley, the tightness of the alley and when the two people walk into each other causing the woman's ID to be dropped again links to the title.

It then fades to a tracking shot of two men in black running towards the alley, their dark clothes suggest they are the antagonists of the film but the appearance and the non-diegetic sirens of a police car suggest they were law enforcement of some kind and that the man we had seen before is possibly the antagonist, is this why he came from China? To murder/kidnap the girl previously shown?

The camera then cuts to a close up of the girl's hand with a phone that begins to ring, the phone's background picture of the Earth connotes her death as she is no longer alive on Earth but it again links to the title as the picture is tightly packed against the 4 sides of the phone.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMlTIxT2HKQ

Preliminary production

Preliminary Production evaluation

In my preliminary production we worked in a group of three people to make the production, this would be done by having two actors, and a cameraman. Our production is entitled ‘the phone call’ a conversation between two students about one struggling with homework and asking the other for help with it.

In the production i have learned the difficulties of filming a production as in order to get the perfect shot it may take several takes as there may be different factors that affect the shooting for example, actors laughing or doing anything that shouldn’t be in the shot like a sneeze for example. I have also learned the difficulties of getting all of your shots in sync and getting everything into the right place changing from a shot, it is vital that you do not skip a split-second.

we found it difficult when attempting to try and find the correct shot fr the scene as sometimes it didn’t run smoothly with the editing and sometimes looked out of place. We found out the difficulties of editing and how we had to try and fit everything in sync perfectly, this is because for example in our match-on-action shot we had to make the timing perfect in order for it to run smoothly, this takes time with the editing to get perfect and so we now know that editing can be quite time consuming. We have also learnt that during your filming you should use a tripod in order to keep the camera steady so the shots aren’t shaky. This is because our camera was a camcorder and so was difficult at times for us to keep out hands still for the shots. We also learnt that we should keep away from areas where we can have a reflection in our shots as in one of our shots we can see a reflection of the cameraman.

  I thought that the planning of our production went well as everybody in the group knew what their roles were before we started filming and knew the scripts in order to have them saying the right things during the filming also felt as though the filming went smoothly so that we could capture all of the clips that we needed efficiently. This was good because it then allowed us to cut the clips well when editing as they were all separate and easy to tell when it has cut to a different clip.

We found problems in collecting all of our clips off the tape as it was done from an outside person to convert it into a file for us to use. This can be prevented next time by using one of the more advanced cameras so that it will save our clips onto a memory card automatically. We also found problems after we had films where on a couple of clips we found a reflection showing the cameraman, this can be prevented next time by us looking back at the clips in detail and changing the angle of the cameraman so that he is not in the reflection in the windows. In the editing we found a problem where we struggled to save our progress so had to stay on the same computer every time we tried to edit in order to continue editing. This can be prevented by exporting every time we make significant progress on our production.

I felt as though working in a group was productive as it allowed for us to have many ideas to choose from with everybody contributing to make it flow smoothly. I felt that by us working in a group it allowed us to efficiently plan out our production to the best of our abilities and also found that working in a group is much more enjoyable as you are working with other people and communicating well with them.

On the other hand i felt that at times we could be found messing about a bit too much and not fully concentrating on the job at hand and so found ourselves wasting some of the time that we had allocated to us, this can be prevented by us all having a full concentration and motivation to do what was required in this production.

I think I have learned that we have to make sure our clips are absolutely perfect for us to use in our main coursework. This way it will improve the production the most it can and make it much easier for us to edit our clips. I have also learned that we should be using one of the more advanced cameras in order to use more of the features that they have available and so that the saving of the clips will be easier.

Overall i felt that the production went okay but could have had many improvements and so we will have to learn from this in order to make it much better in our coursework. This can be done by us making sure that we get all of our shots off the camera so that we can use them for better use whilst editing I felt that i contributed well to the production trying to work as an actor in our production and work with all of the different shots that we needed to make.

Face/Off thriller analysis

Face/off
John Woo 1997
The titles at the start are full screen titles and are in a black and white colour scheme, this could represent the use of good and evil inside the movie showing there is a bad side and a good side. This is a general convention of a thriller as in a lot of cases there is good and evil.
When the names of the characters appear in overlay titles it shows their surname and first name to be black or white, one being the opposite of the other. This further enhances the use of good and evil. The titles move forward and backward and one getting bigger and the other smallest. This could represent something being taken away and then being added to something else with one gaining size and one loosing it.
There is a diegetic sound that sets the mood of happiness and fun. This is also shown by the sound of a child laughing. This shows that at the time of this all was well and sets the mood for us at the start.
The first shot is a close up of  John Travolta and his son at on the carrousel. This shows us equilibrium to start with just like in most thrillers making it a convention, in this case it is what seems to be a man that loves his son. The fact that this is the first shot we see in the movie ahead of an establishing shot perhaps suggests that the story may be based around these two characters.
We cut to a close up of a sniper being pulled out from under a cover. When the cover is took off we here an exaggerated sound to enhance that the sniper has been pulled out and so signifies danger. Also, the non-diegetic music of happiness disappears instantly. This indicates a change of mood and prepares the audience for something bad which is going to happen.
The close up has selective focus purely on the sniper rifle. We are looking straight down the scope of the sniper and so this shows us even further the potential for a catastrophic event.
There is a long shot of the person operating the sniper. This character is dressed in all black which suggests he is evil. We see in his non-verbal codes that he has a confidence about him when pulling the cover away. this tells us that his character is a professional and knows what he is doing with the sniper.
There is a close up of Nicholas Cage sipping what looks like a fast-food restaurant drink. This shows to us that he is calm about the job he is doing, which is we presume at this stage to kill John Travolta. The sipping of the cup also shows he has done this before as he is showing no signs of looking nervous and so knows what he is doing.
We then cut to the sniper in the scopes zooming in with the cross-hairs on the boy. This is done in a long-shot. The fact that it is pointing on the boy first, then to John Travolta suggests to us that Nicholas Cage is going to kill the boy instead of Travolta even though these were not his intentions.
There is a cut to Nicholas’ cage as he comes away from the sniper. We can see in his non-verbal codes at this stage that perhaps he is less confident about the shot and doubts what he is doing because there is a child there. Further showing the potential for something to go wrong.
We then cut back to a shot of the cross hairs aiming at John Travolta back, this showing where the bullet is going to hit when it is shot.
The music again changes to a sinister tone when the bullet is shot and creates a mood for the audience of fear and hurt, as if they are in the movie themselves, this makes the relate to the characters more.
There is a shot of the horse which John Travolta and his son fell off with the blood on the side. This shows us that they have been clearly hit. We hear a noise of a non-diegetic scream at this point, this enhances the horrible event that has happened and the scream itself is rather disturbing.
We see a low angle medium shot of some balloons rising up to the air. This could show us a life that is going up to heaven that has been lost. And also suggests that it is the boys as he was seen holding balloons beforehand.
There is a medium shot of John Travolta holding his son who has been killed, this shows us his love for his son and makes us sympathise with this character more. Meaning that for us we can see a definite distinction between the good and the evil
There is a long-shot of Nicholas Cage after he has killed the boy showing his non-verbal codes as quite shocked, this shows us that Nicholas Cage’s character has got some emotions and isn’t all evil inside.
There is a tracking shot showing outside a window. This shows lots of tall big buildings meaning that this movie is set in the city. This is a convention of a thriller as this is where the majority of crime is committed.
We track along to a close up of John Travolta stood at the window looking stressed and thinking. Because we have just cut from his son being killed it immediately links with this and makes us think that he is thinking about his son and that he hasn’t gotten over his death yet. We can also see in this shot a wedding ring on his finger, this implying that his character is married.
We cut to a tracking shot of the camera showing lots of awards that John Travolta has won, this shows us that he is an expert in the field that he works in which we can also see is in the police force. Which is another convention of a thriller as there is usually some form of law enforcement inside thrillers? There is a close up of a gun at the bottom. This shows us that John Travolta is highly skilled with a weapon and also links us back to Nicholas cage who was also skilled with a gun. This shows us the two characters are equally matched as is another convention of a thriller. This way the audience never know who is going to come out on top out of the two.
There is a close up of John Travolta looking very determined and focused to do something. Because of te previous scene and him grabbing his gun it makes us think he is out for revenge and perhaps foreshadows things to come in the future of this movie.
We see Nicholas Cage in a close up in a Priests uniform, which to begin with makes us think he may have changed his ways. But by seeing the orange box which connotes danger we can see that he has not and it is all a disguise. This shows he is still out there trying to cause trouble and increasingly makes the audience’s interpretation of him be worse then before.
There is a skull sign on the inside of the orange box. This sign normally connotes death and so suggests to us that Nicholas cage was planning to plot something which could kill a lot of people.
There is a contrapuntal diegetic sound of the words ‘halleluiah’ being played over and over again. This is completely opposite to the mood being set at the time but shows us that the people inside the building singing the song have no idea of what Nicholas Cage has plotted to do, this also adds a comedic effect to the movie showing that it will have some comedic elements throughout.
We see a close up of a phone with ext 1 lighten up. This is after we have heard diegetic dialogue saying his wife is on line 1. John Travolta ignores this and is more interested in breaking the case. This perhaps shows us that there are problems within his marriage and at home showing us that he is a flawed hero. This is another convention of a thriller  as the protagonist is usually the one with a flaw in the movie to show that they are not all perfect

Se7en thriller movie analysis

Se7en:

The scene opens with a sound bridge of traffic which starts from the studio logo; this shows us that the character lives in the city as it is very noisy. From the opening shots of inside Somerset's house we instantly know that the character is a detective as we see a close up of a police badge, in the opening scene there are several long shots and medium shots of his daily life. We see that the character is very orderly and organised; we know this because we see a medium close up of him wiping dirt off his suit jacket, and this gives us the idea that he likes everything to be the precise and ordered. In the same shot we see that his bed is already made, this again gives us the idea that he is very ordered and possibly that he has OCD.  His apartment is set in an urban area, use of a blue filter to make it appear downcast and dreary although it is very clean and neat. The chaotic noise makes it seem very claustrophobic and dangerous. The detective’s apartment is very neat and organised, showing us he’s a very thorough and obsessive man although we learn that he lives on his own as the apartment has a very plain style and there are no other possessions/decor that indicates children or a wife live there also.

There is then an ellipsis edit to Detective Somerset inspecting an apartment where a murder has occurred. There is use of chiaroscuro lighting in this scene, this is to add mystery and tension to the scene. A new detective is introduced, we quickly know that Somerset annoys him as Somerset wants to get the job done right and asks lots of questions into the murder, this again shows us that Somerset is a very thorough, ordered man who likes to get the job done right. We also learn from this that Somerset is planning to retire, and the other person ‘can't wait for him to go’ this shows us that Somerset may not be liked in the police force due to his need to do things the right way and leave no stone unturned, other officers don't seem to understand this however which suggests Somerset is of high intelligence since he knows how things have to be done.

We are then introduced to another character – Detective Mills, who is wearing a leather jacket and chewing gum, this immediately shows us there is a very obvious contrast between the two main protagonists. There is then an ellipsis edit to Mills and Somerset walking out of the building, there is a tracking medium long shot as they are walking. There is a low angle to show their dominance and authority. . There is then another ellipsis edit to Somerset back in his apartment ready for bed. We see that he plays a metronome to block out the sound; this again shows us that Somerset likes order and routine, the fact that the scene opened with Somerset just getting out of bed and going to work, and then ending with him back in bed suggests his life is his job as it seemed that was all that happened for him during that day.

We are taken into the titles using a sound bridge of the metronome and then a long sustained note, the titles show several close ups on several close ups. The titles use overlay titles and a use of montage. We can tell this person will be the killer as he is scraping off his fingerprints with a blade, which are something we see a lot of in this sequence. We see tightly packed journals which show he’s very intelligent but also shows he’s quite disturbed. During the titles there are slight flickers of red on the screen which connotes blood and death which again shows us that this person is probably the killer. We see many disturbing pictures during this of blades and dead animals, the blades link to the overlay titles as they look as though they have been scratched onto a surface. The music used in this sequence is 'closer' by Nine Inch Nails, there are several dark sounds throughout this like screeching, smashing of glass and human screams, this creates a sense of unease for the viewer and suggest these are the sounds of the villains actions. There is use of binary oppositions which fits the mood of thrillers. 

Sixth sense thriller analysis

Sixth sense

The scene opens with full screen titles, unlike Face off and Se7en which use overlay titles and a montage sequence. This suggests that the film may be more of a psychological thriller rather that an action thriller. The opening titles are quite slow, which builds up the tension but doesn't connote action. There is classic white, serif font on a black background which slowly fades in and out as they move towards the front of the screen; this implies that this will be a psychological thriller again. The eerie and supernatural feel is reinforced by the opening slow paced orchestral music.     

The first shot is a close up of a bulb turning on, the use of a close up shows the bub with more detail as it is turning on which creates a certain mood in the audience as they do not know who or what else is in the room. From the start is unclear to work out where the location is set, as we have only seen a light bulb slowly coming on and a shot through a wire rack, this adds to the mystery aspect as we don’t know where we are.  However, they are given clues by the fact the light bulb is on its own with no cover over it. This makes the overall setting seem unwelcoming and makes the audience feel apprehensive. We then see a long shot through the wine rack. This gives the idea that someone or something is in the room watching the woman. This makes the audience feel very uneasy. A tracking shot is used when she is looking for the wine which makes us feel as though every move she makes is being watched, showing she is in danger. The use of shadows and chiaroscuro lighting creates an eerie tone in the scene and makes us feel on edge, shadows also give us the idea again that something is watching her.

We then have an ellipsis edit to them celebrating his award in the living room of the house. At this point the scene seems very relaxed with shot reverse shot as they engage in conversation about Bruce Willis’ awards. We learn that he is a very professional psychologist as he has just won a major award for his work, we also learn that he has put his work over his wife, this could potentially show us that work is his main priority over anything else which is a typical thriller convention as in most thrillers the main protagonist always puts his job first and always makes sure the job is done right, this is emphasised by John Travolta’s character in Face Off.  There is a cut to a long shot outside of the room on the stairs, this gives us a feel that someone is watching them, and something is about to happen.

There is then another ellipsis edit to the psychologist and his wife going to hang the award in the bathroom. We see a medium close up as their non-verbal codes change and become shocked as they see that their window is broken. The built up mysterious non-diegetic music as it climaxes as the audience realise that they have been broken into gives the scene a sense of danger. There is then a cut to someone walking out of the bathroom who turns out to be an ex-patient of the psychologists. The man seems very disturbed, we see this as he has stripped off down to his underwear, we instantly get the idea that he is very deranged. There are several shot reverse shots between them as we get the feel that everything is calming down as shot reverse shots usually show a good relationship between two people. Just as the audience believes everything has calmed down the mysterious, disturbed man shoots the psychologist, as the man goes to shoot himself there is a tracking shot until he is off screen, this is to show that the audience are to focus on the psychological element of the film, not the action part of the film. We cut to an overhead shot as Bruce Willis’ character  is bleeding on the bed, this is to show the full extent of his injury.

There is then an ellipsis edit using overlay titles to state the next fall. We see an establishing point of view long shot of the house the psychologist is observing, this is done to set the scene. From the establishing shot we see a tight packed, well organised, clean community, we see that there are several flats/apartments. This is not a general convention of a thriller as thrillers are typically set in chaotic, busy cities. There is a whip pan to imply a point of view shot as the child we presume he is working with exits the house. We then see a tracking shot of the psychologist as he is following the child. As Bruce Willis’ character is following the child we see that it is a set in a city, which is a convention of a thriller. The child enters a church with red doors, this connotes death and that a murder could possibly happen in the future.

In The Sixth Sense our protagonist is not the general protagonist you would find in most thriller films. He is a psychologist, not someone who works for the law like most thrillers. Although, he is a highly respected psychologist, being played by Bruce Willis he has many of the qualities we’d expect from our protagonist. Todorov’s theory is represented well in this film as it goes from a peaceful celebration with his wife, to an attempted murder which is the most typical equilibrium and disruption. There are other typical conventions of a thriller, the use of chiaroscuro lighting and shadows create a supernatural feeling. The eerie sound effect also add an element of mystery.

Bruce Willis is the typical actor who would play the protagonist in thrillers due to his features such as gender, age and looks.