Wednesday, 1 April 2009
My Final Evaluation
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Media Thriller Evaluation
Massie Road from 283goswell on Vimeo.
Thriller Evalution
In order for my group and I to produce a thriller opening which was successful and professional looking, we started by researching and comparing existing thriller openings. Doing this helped us to verify the conventions that thriller openings must contain. The use of mise-en-scene in thrillers in order to create suspense is approached in various ways. For instance; location in a thriller opening can stand as a very important narrative clue. In The Shinning, (a thriller that greatly influence my work) for example the location of the Overlook Hotel where it’s presence alone is slightly alarming, is used to reflect the protagonist's contrasting civilised behavior with his later malicious and psychotic possessed personality. This is demonstrated by presenting the character within the surrounding of a ‘normal’ environment, with his wife and child. I challenged the forms of conventions by using the idea of taking a normal setting and placing a character out of the ordinary in it. I used a busy city location to reel my audience into thinking everything was ok. I then used an isolated suburban setting to progress with a growing sense of threat or danger and the excitement of pursuit, an example of this can be found in the scene where the main character spots the disturbing figure with her house keys. I believe the use of these conventions indicate the sub-genre my thriller may come under.
In my product we used a teenage African female as the main ‘innocent’ character. The costume used for the main character was that of a normal teen from a working class background; dark coloured jeans, plim soles, a dark jacket and a black woolly hat.
I believe if taken on by a great director and given a reasonable budget, my film has the potential to be produced as a big Hollywood studio, as our ideas are quite similar to existing products, for e.g. The Bone Collector
As I previously mentioned, my target audience is people aged 15 plus. We closely focused on the target audience we were aiming our film towards. We chose a wide target audience of both males and females ranging from ages 15-30. People from this age group are more likely to visit the cinema and watch particularly a thriller film. Jade, 18, works in fashion retail and enjoys watching thrilling movies with friends, shops on the high street, lives in a suburban area, is from a working class background; this is typical person who would fit into my target audience. Aimed at those primarily from a working class background, it is not single gender specific. Our narrative was aimed to allow our target audience to be able to relate. A modern young black teenage girl with dreams and aspiration just like any normal teen, on her way to a social gathering and gets abducted and is missing for a long while. From our previous study of the thriller genre we were aware that to create an effective opening which creates suspense in narrative, there must be unanswered questions which will compel the viewer to anticipate action with a resolution. For our opening sequence we wanted to create a narrative structure that would encourage the viewer to continue watching the rest of the film and that would leave areas in which the film could develop.
Throughout the duration of this thriller my group and I learnt a substantial amount of things. Despite the fact that we faced many set backs we were still able to complete our media product before the deadline. Mid way into filming our thriller we were forced to make a tough decision. We originally set out to film at night time but due to bad lighting it was recommended that we set it during the daytime. During playback we realised that the footage we filmed came out too dark. Filming during the day proved easier and we weren’t waiting around for the sun to go down. We learnt that in order to include successful match cuts, the same action needed to be shot from different angles, being careful not to break the 180 degree rule. We explored different camera shots; extreme long shots to show the physical context of action and landscape, long shots, medium shots, and close ups to focus on one character and their facial expression which are
We used soundtrack pro to put together our soundtrack then exported it to final cut pro where we played around with the volume levels and made sure sounds came in at the right times giving the right effects (Audio of Sound Track). Logging and capturing was simple. The editing process became more enjoyable once we got the hang of using final cut pro. As I became more familiar with the program editing became quicker.
When I look back at the preliminary match cut task that I did. I have realised how important it is to plan and story board the ideas that you have for your Thriller before we go and film it. For the actual Thriller we decided to film many different angles of the same piece of action and this was something that we didn’t do in the preliminary task. The match cut task really helped me when I came to do my actual Thriller as it allowed me to have knowledge of how to do really good match cuts. I believe match cuts are important for helping to establish a strong continuity of action. It can be used to underline a connection between two separate elements, or for purely visual reasons. (Video of Preliminary task) When it came to editing the Thriller it made it slightly easier as we had practiced on the preliminary but there were still things that need to be learnt. Having done the preliminary task, it allowed us to also get to grips with our organisation and also sharing out the task. We knew that it wouldn’t be easy to do anything without the whole group pulling their weight. As the process continued I found myself being more confident in using the software’s like Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Live Type.
We had very positive audience feedback which made me proud of my work. We were told that the black and white effect was effective and the use of sound effects worked. I was really pleased that people enjoyed watching the Thriller and that they were supportive of the work. If I had to do this again I would plan more in depth and know exactly what I was going to go and film before I started as this wasted a lot of time. (Video of Thriller)
Louise Olanipekun
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Final Edit and Finished Thriller
We needed to put on sound effects on important things like the girl and also the name of the road "Massie Road".
Before we did that we finished off blending in the different soundtracks and mixing the radio bit together. When we had finished blending all the music together we exported the project to soundtrack pro in order to put in sound effect. We found it hard finding sound effect that would go with all the different bits. We finally found some effects and it worked well.
We wanted the last bit of the stalker to really stand out so we slowed down the footage and also put heartbeats on it gradually increasing in volume as the stalker approached the girl.
We tried to put several effects on different part like where we see the flash of the girl, but was unable as the shot was too short. We instead had to just use a sound effect.
We looked at the footage and realised that in several times it was sunny at sometimes the floor was wet and so we decided to make the whole Thriller black and white. We we watched it again in black and white it looked more professional and stood out more. It really gave the effect that we was looking for.
At the end with stalker we used an effect that made the screen sharp this gave a more thrilling feel and made it look more effective. I was unable to attend tutorial as the deadline was fast approaching but luckily we was able to finish the Thriller at 12:25pm.
I was really happy that we was able to finish. A lot of work was put into making this Thriller and together as a group despite the absence of one member and sometimes the lack of commitment we was still able to finish and in my eyes have a successful Thriller.
Friday, 27 February 2009
'Let em play God'
Joseph Hitchcock wrote an article called thrills, suspense, the audience'. In this article Hitchcock. We always wonder how movie makers get the audience at the edge of their seat and Joseph Hitchcock talks about this. ‘Let em play God’, Hitchcock assumes that suspense is built up when the audience plays God. If as the audience we are unaware if a character is a hero or villain they will not know whether to rejoice or not rejoice. Hitchcock says if the audience has been told all the secrets that the character doesn’t know, “they’ll work like the devil for you because they know what fate is facing the poor actors”. He describes this as “Playing God”.
Surprise not suspense is built if a character is not convincing according to Hitchcock. Hitchcock also says that we do not need effects such as shadows, dull weather and creaky doors to build up suspense. His movie ‘Rope’ was evidence for this point. As Hitchcock became more interested in developing his suspense techniques, he chose to shoot these types of stories exclusively. When Hitchcock had made ‘Secret Agent’, ‘Sabotage’, and ‘The 39 Steps’ this conclusion was made.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Workshop Editing
When i first arrived at college my group members had not yet arrived so i got into the editing room and working on completing the editing. The rest of my group joined me shortly after and together, we began thinking about how to build up tension and create a sense of suspense through sound for the shots where the sudden flash of the mysterious girl appears and the walk before reaching massie road. We decided to have different sounds layerd together but bringing them in graduall inorder to create a false sense of sercurity, so the viewers think it is nothing but a normal day. Making the sound proved difficult as we found it hard to blend everything together smoothly and make the transition between diagetic and non-diagetic sound seemless.
After lunch time Gerald and I returned to media workshop anxious to do more work as the deadline is tomorow! We worked on fitting the new suspense sound that we had made into the footage and it worked very well together.
Tomorrow Myself and Gerald plan to get to college for 9:00am even though we start at 1.15 inorder not to risk leaving little bits and bobs of editing till last minute as i am sure the suites will be rampacked later on in the day. During this time we will be adding the last bits of visual effects where neccesary to enhance the thrill of the scene e.g.the illusion of the girl and also the stalker scene. I believe as a group we have worked considerably well to get our Thriller completed by the deadline, but if askes to do this again i would make SEVERAL modifications. But i enjoyed working on this project.
Media Lesson and Work Shop 26/2/09
In the last bits of the Thriller where the stalker sees the girl, Anabel told us that it was too long but we couldn't fit any footage in between so we had to leave it how it was. Where the stalker runs up on the girl, we slowed it up and made it more effective.
After lunch time i came back to media workshop in order to do more work as the deadline is Friday. When i came back i put the sound that we had made onto the footage and it worked really well.
Tomorrow i am planning on getting to college for 9:00am even though i start at 11:00am so that i can have time to put more sound effects and also to add any effect for the illusion of the girl and also the stalker scene. I think the group have worked well in order to get the Thriller done, but we still need that little bit more work in order for it to be completed well and successful.