FINAL EDIT.avi

This is mine and Ben's final draft and I am very happy with the way that it has turned out. We have put a lot of work into our clip and overall I think that the outcome is excellent.

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

As a group task me and Ben sat down and decided that a lot of the past AS productions as a majority has been more trailers then the opening to a film. From my own independent research (Seven and The Collector) I discovered that the opening to a film should achieve three things which are to give credit to the people who have directed, started and produced the film. It should give a very slight idea of the story and this could be as little as showing the setting or as much as showing the murder weapon. The last thing and the most important thing the first two minutes should achieve is to engage and retain the audience so that they want to watch the rest of the movie. The way we wanted to develop the conventions of real media products was to challenge this and achieve them but in a way which was a lot more extreme. An example of this is when the titles flash in and out causing confusion to the audience. We also set the scene and gave an insight in to the watcher but in a way that challenges the conventional way of media these days. We also set out to hook the audience so that they would want to know what happens next. We took a lot of inspiration from the film Seven which I mentioned earlier on in my blog. From the first time that we were told about creating a thriller this film stood out to the both of us because of how famous it is and how well it has done over the years.

We believed that this was because they took a different take on thrillers and created something individual which had never been done before which was exactly what we decided we wanted to do. We did not want to follow a typical thriller storyline so we decided to brainstorm some ideas to come up with some great ideas which could set us aside from everybody else. With some of the images that we shot, we wanted them to have a similar impact that the images in the Seven opening did, so shots such as putting the gloves on was something that we used the inspiration of Seven for.

We thought that if you placed attention on an object then it means it is important to the film or something that you should pick up on. We also decided to use a backing soundtrack which we believed was very suitable for our media product because the music heightens when we want it to, at the crucial moments. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

When we started to produce our film we didn't really think about aiming it towards any particular social groups but when I look back now I don't think that we really do represent any social groups. We have set our thriller to be in a normal environment which could possibly scare people more because it gives them a feel of insecurity as somewhere such as a train station could hold danger for them.

This plays on peoples fears which is exactly what 'The Watcher' does. He is a man who plays on people's fears and what they feel uncomfortable with. We have tried to set our film in a middle class suburban area because we felt that this was appropriate so that we could make people feel as though they are not safe when they are actually living in a middle class area where crimes are less likely to happen. The audience should then feel uncomfortable and almost as if they are prone to being a victim because they are in the film which connects with their real feelings. When people do not deserve to be the victim it makes a much better storyline than when people deserve the pain that they are caused. 


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

I would distribute my film to Working Title.

This is because Working Title gets a lot of backing from Universal because Universal bought into Working Title's shares. This would help make my film get largely produced because Universal is very big company in the US and funding from them would help the film to get better actors and equipment which would automatically improve my film and make it a lot more professional. Working Title is based in the UK in London and is a much smaller company than Universal. They mainly use the UK for the location of filming and Working Title mainly decide to use British actors. If my film did well with Working Title producing the film then Universal would take the film and distribute it in America and their own multiplexes across the UK. Then Universal could bring some more finance to the project and could make adverts, trailers and an advertising campaign on the internet. We thought from our research that 15-21 year olds would more likely see and interact with an internet advertising campaign than any other advertising campaign.

Working Title have distributed thrillers such as recently Green Zone which has brought in a gross revenue of $94,862,344 which is large for a English company.

Another thriller that they have distributed recently in 2008 is Burn After Reading which has brought in a gross revenue of $161,128, 228 which is much more than their budget of $37 million.

This shows that if my film was to be distributed by a company which has brought in a lot of revenue before then they would be able to hopefully do the same with mine as they would be able to have a larger budget that I have done and better actors. 

 Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my media product would range from ages from 15+ because the film shows some violence and explores some delicate issues. Our thriller film is very full of suspense and we would want to create lots and twists and turns in the plot to keep people guessing like the thriller (Seven). We hope that our audience would be both male and female because our thriller appeals to both. Violence appeals to the men and the twists and turns for the women which is very stereotypical but one of the best ways to look at it because they have some truth to them. We have created a psychological thriller which should need a lot of attention to keep up with the storyline as it is meant to be confusing and hard to keep up with due to the many different shots. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to attract the audience through my piece by being disjointed and trying to make the audience keep guessing throughout the piece. We attract the audience through the fast pace and the different shots which makes the audience want to keep watching because they want to know what is the source of the shots and why they are being used. We use reverse shots to give the impression at the start that ‘The Watcher’ was going in to the house then at the end we also try and give the impression that ‘The Watcher’ has left the house.

 If the audience cannot guess what is going to happen next then this makes them want to carry on watching. They will not want to stop watching our film because we have made it so that they cannot possibly guess what is going to happen and who the victim is from the first two minutes. The whole point of the first two minutes of the film is to engage and retain your audience which is what we have definitely tried to do. Certain images such as 'The Watcher' on the other side of the platform and then when the train goes past he has disappeared, attract the audience because they want to know where he has gone.

The gardening tools also attract the audience because they do not know what 'The Watcher' is going to do with these tools and how he is going to use them. We want to keep the audience enticed by confusing them and keeping them guessing. 

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

I have never really used a camera before to film something for myself so I was completely new with all of the technology, also including the tripod. I am familiar with picture cameras so I did have some knowledge on how to use cameras but nothing too specific. If I had a problem I would probably have been able to figure it out with the knowledge I did have. I had never used Adobe Premiere Pro before which soon became obvious to myself because when it came to editing I had to learn everything from scratch. Fortunately, it was quite easy to pick up as I am quite good with technology but it took longer than maybe it should have done. The preliminary task was helpful but it still did not tell us as much as maybe was needed throughout this task. I was also an actor when we were filming our preliminary task so this meant that I did not get to play around with the camera and actually do any of the filming myself. We had a few problems with the white balance but we learnt how to use it as in different settings, the white balance needed to be different due to the lighting that was available in the setting or at the time of day.

We needed to do this so that the quality of the shots was as high as possible. Adobe Premiere Pro can do some amazing transitions and edits as long as you know how to use it properly and fortunately one of our close friends is doing A2 Media so he is familiar with the program and he showed us some effective transitions and effects which were great and definitely helped to make our media product better. We discovered many different things to use after he showed us where to find the best transitions and effects. Editing is a large part of a film and if it does not look correct then it will not create a good finishing product. 


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


I have learnt a lot within the camera and Adobe Premiere Pro since I did the preliminary task because of the experience and just generally having time to look around the different areas of the program to see what is available to us. By spending more time filming I have managed to understand and more control over the camera because over time my skills have increased. When we were doing our preliminary task we did not have a lot of freedom. Although we were allowed to choose the storyline we had technically stay inside college and this meant that we were limited to the rooms available to use and also the casting had to be somebody out of our group because it was just easier and there was not much time for other casting. Fortunately, Louise from my Drama group was happy to come and help us in some of her free time whereas some other people would not be willing to do so. We did not need to do so much planning for the preliminary task because it was a simple task and not so much was needed from us. Planning was crucial for us in this final product because we did not have time to waste and we needed to know what was going to be shot and when so that we had enough time to edit. We were able to choose our own location and casting which made our clip automatically a lot better and individualistic.