Dear Moderator

Welcome to my Blog (G321)

My finished construction (thriller opening sequence) can be found here.

Here are the links to each of my evaluation questions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

All posts labelled research can be found here.

All posts labelled planning can be found here.

Analysis tasks can be found here if necessary. Scene analysis. Opening scene analyses. Poster analyses.

Any other posts which may be relevant to coursework can be found under the sidebar titled "Quick Links To Coursework" -->

(If embedded links don't work then I have the URL's below each of them on the relevant blog post)

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

https://youtu.be/BwjJ4dd9zog

Script:

Locations & Narrative:
With our narrative we have conformed to conventions of the thriller genre, for example we have chosen to leave the opening on an enigma so that it is not clear why the protagonist was kidnaped or whether she is alive or dead.

For our settings we were influenced by the thriller shutter island which gave us the idea of using the typical beach scene for our opening sequence it gives a sense of distance and separation.

By showing the waves lapping over the camera and it then dipping under waves, our audience feel the same entrapment as what the victim would feel, it then makes the audience empathise with that character as oppose to the villain character.

Gender:
In our thriller opening we included three male characters and one female. Following Propp's character types, we stereotypically used a male villain. This is used in almost every thriller, examples are the James Bond films and the Dark Knight Trilogy that all contain a villain that is of the male sex. The Bane in Batman is seen as very muscular and powerful over the other characters due to his physical build which we have attempted to replicate by using an actor who is much bigger than our victim.

Another convention our opening scene met is the typical 'damsel in distress' type character, being the female victim. This links to the 2008 film Taken which also features a teenage girl as the 'Princess', relating to Propp's character types. She is very weak and is kidnapped within the first few minutes of the film and the character is vulnerable as there are only two teenage girls and no males.

Costume/ props:
Our antagonist character is seen wearing a dark hoodie, this is used to hide the characters identity and create an element of mystery. We chose him to wear dark colours which have negative connotations such as evil, hate and death. This is typical for the thriller genre for a villain character. Additionally by choosing this costume it helps him stay hidden in the shadows which was shown to be very effective especially in the house party scene as he blended in to the background. It is very common in thrillers for masks to be used and in general for the villain's identity to be kept hidden, an example of this is displayed in the beginning of The Dark Knight film.

Something which was significant for our characters costumes was that of the costume of the extras. One of the friends in the party scene is seen wearing a yellow hoodie-style jumper. We used him to portray future events of the sequence. The colour yellow connotates happiness, joy and energy (reflective of the protagonist) however this colour also represents caution and warning which we took as foreshadows her untimely demise later on in the thriller.

In most thrillers the female characters are seen as objects and are sexualised (Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory) however we tried to subvert from these conventions and present her has a normal teenage character, this was partly helped that our actor was basically representing herself for the thriller.

Colours:
In the production of our thriller we decided to effectively use colour for impact. The use of colour is representative of the main character's life. To begin with the scene at the party we saturated the bright colours in shot to make it vibrant and alive. This gave the idea of strobe lighting as well as making the actors stand out (in contrast) to the pitch black background in that scene. This scene with the bright colours is designed to represent the life of the victim which at this time is complete and radiant.

There is a variation of colour for the beach scene where we used black and white shots as inspired from the 1960’s thriller Psycho. By taking all the colour from the picture it makes the scene seem incomplete and vacant. The DE saturated shots are unconventional as typically they show events in the past, however, with our thriller it in fact represents the present (the morning after the party).

Sound:
Starting off with non-diegetic sound which is sound characters cannot hear in the diegesis we created a soundtrack. We used Garageband to compose what we believe is a typical thriller backing track. We based it on the Bank Heist music from The Dark Knight because it was a very eerie and added tension to the scene in certain areas. We also used other tension sound effects to add atmosphere to certain areas.

Diegetic sound is also important in our thriller due to it being significant sounds which the characters can hear. A good example of this is the noise of the sea which is paramount to the rest of the title sequence not only as it displays the setting but also relate to what ends up to the protagonist.

Secondly the sound changes from the main sound track and slows down to an eerie wind blowing noise combined with the noise from a violin, we used this again to signify the life of the character which fades as she is seen to die at the end of the clip before the credits.

Finally, the tension is at its highest point during the POV shot of the victim drowning amongst the waves because it shows her struggle since we cannot hear any background noise, simply the bubbling sound which was added in the editing stages. This particular part is powerful as the audience are unsure if she is dead or not. Furthermore, the music ends abruptly presenting the disturbance of the equilibrium and her possible death.

MANY THANKS FOR LISTENING!
Written, presented and editied by Russell Dewing
www.russelldewingmedia.blogspot.co.uk

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

https://youtu.be/Ria4jlwAu6s

Script:

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

About:
In my preliminary task I had to be able to use a variety of techniques which would become significant for my final piece of work. The task involved working in a group of three to produce a short sequence which showed that continuity was key for a media production.

-The first was match action which is getting the shots to line up correctly (so they look believable) using long shots, close up’s, POV and panning. Something which we liked and kept on to for our thriller (at the party and when the protagonist is in the sea at the end).
-And secondly was the 180 degree rule which is used for dialogue. The idea of this rule is so that the audience do not become disoriented with lots of different angles, by keeping to one side of the line this makes it much easier for the audience to understand the scene. Something which I did not use in my final production however it was useful information for when a scene which required a conversation would be required, regardless we used this for when we spoke in the preliminary task to demonstrate our skill and understanding of why it should be used.
-It helped me work as part of a group

We managed to get a few good shots in the preliminary video however costumes and props were very limited and basic since we were using those provided by the college, there was no real theme or genre for this either since we did not go through much planning and no storyboard was used… we simply wrote a few lines and planned it out as we went… something which we would steer clear for in our real production. We took the opportunity to mainly to practice our techniques. With this first stage a few minor errors were made regarding continuity and editing although identifying these mistakes we as a group were then able to address this for the actual production.

Characters:
There was little thought go in to the characters we simply said we needed a protagonist and an antagonists. It was merely a comical fight scene between the two characters with a “who wins?” ending. For the preliminary task we had to film ourselves as we had little time to arrange for actors this therefore might have made the scenes look a bit strange as we were really sure who we were playing as in terms of the characters weren't given a story.

When it came to the actual thriller opening we took a lot of care and planning when casting people for it. We used characters our own ages as we were able to cast them easily and it also appealed to our target audience which were teenagers meaning how the characters appeared was more realistic since they were teenagers/ students representing themselves. We used teenagers as the protagonist (victim) as well as extras who were at the party. We were also able to get help from family members to play older characters since it would not appear plausible if it was a teen playing the antagonist, also they would loose some of the mystery and fear factor since he would not appear as scary or powerful. This gave a principle of binary opposite as it was not only a fight for the audience of good against evil but maybe a slightly more controversial theme of young vs old which could cause split opinions between an active audience.

Sound:
In our preliminary task we used iMovie to edit our sound where we simply got a soundtrack from their database and overlaid it with our video. Diegetic and non diegetic in preliminary task using the sound of doors closing and footsteps as well as when the character falls to the floor. This was very useful when filming our final thriller we could then identify where appropriate sounds should go within the clips.

When it came to editing the sound for HIGHTIDE we actually created the audio in garage band and combined it with other sounds found on there including atmospheric non diegetic sounds overlaid to the backing track and diegetic sound such as the wind and ship rigging noise in the credits. NOTE we also included the noise of waves in the beach scene to help bring the setting to life however we did not have diegetic sound for the party scene as it was set in the past.

Editing:
From our preliminary task we probably learned out most valuable lesson which was making sure we had backups of our shots, this was down to use having issues uploading them to the computers. We took this on board and made sure each scene was filmed a couple of times, this was also useful for continuity in case some shots didn’t match or if we felt they weren’t to a good enough quality for our thriller, this was noticed when filming our thriller at the party scene and we decided to adjust the lighting and film it a couple of times to see what was best.

By having everything filmed early it gave us much more time to play around with editing techniques as well as going out if necessary to re shoot certain scenes if we felt they weren’t up to scratch.

When working on the preliminary task we used iMovie this piece of software was easy to use for this task however it is not as professional as Final Cut Pro which we decided on using for our thriller as it allowed us much more freedom with editing and the tools available this gave us the capability we could fine tune certain clips in more detail.

With our preliminary task there was little editing required as it wasn’t very complex we just placed the clips in order, there were no visual effects used. When editing our final product HIGHTIDE we looked at various tutorials and websites on how to edit in Final Cut Pro, this was done so that we could improve visuals such as lighting as well as make certain scenes e.g. the beach scene, have an essence of time passing through the fades.

MANY THANKS FOR WATCHING!
Written, presented and editied by Russell Dewing
www.russelldewingmedia.blogspot.co.uk

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This is a mind map created about question 6 relating to technologies. You are able to zoom in on the map and move about to see specific sections. If this does not load then there is a read only copy of this post available at https://bubbl.us/?h=29a4e4/53fcf8/27.MRmfFeayT.&r=333566210

Question 5: How did you attract/ address your audience?

Schedule

Beach Scenes

November 29th 10:00am - 11:00am

• Establishing shot pans down of the beach. (Carl & Jade) 
• Pan across of the waves rolling in. (Carl & Jade) 
• Crane shot up of the victim being dragged along the shoreline. (Carl & Jade) 
• Close up of the Victim's feet. (Carl & Jade) 
• Longshot of the victim being dragged along the beach. (Carl & Jade) 
• POV of the victim drowning in the sea. (Jade) 

House Scenes

December 5th 7:00pm - 8:00pm

• Establishing shot pans down of the party. (Jade, Theo, Jake)
• POV of the man looking at the teenagers party. (Jade, Theo, Jake)
• POV of the victim unknowingly looking at the antagonist. (Theo, Jake, Carl)
• Close up of the victims feet dancing. (Jade)
• Two shot of antagonist kidnapping victim (shadows). (Jade, Carl)
• Over the shoulder shot of victim being placed in the boot of a car. (Jade, Carl) 
• POV of victim in boot seeing the antagonist shut it. (Carl)

Storyboard

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

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

There are many Distribution companies that solely distribute thrillers. Depending the size of the company determines what type films will be distributed. A larger distribution company is more likely to distribute a film produced by 'The Big Six' (e.g. Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox), compared to an independent film company such as ourselves.

When it comes to distributing my thriller there are many alternative ways in which I can do so. Through the help of modern technologies it has made it easier for first time film-makers and other people to get their product noticed. Wither interfaces online such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo etc. it allows people throughout the world to watch media without the actual need for any 'true' distribution methods. Other alternatives would include going to film festivals and promoting the thriller there via previews on a big screen or speaking with distribution companies.

Firstly to get publicity I could start up a fan base on Facebook with teaser trailers, this way you can generate interest and attention. This service is free and simple to manage. It also allows you to collect analytics of the people who look at your content you post. It allows the audience to answer questions and also speculate about the thriller before actually releasing it.

Secondly to distribute the product I believe one of the best ways to get a film out to audiences is most likely through YouTube or Vimeo as these services are easy to upload and are at no charge for uploading the content onto the website which is useful for a company which are trying to release with a rather small budget. The useful link system on this service means that I can enter relevant 'keywords' to the video so that people who do a search with those words it will appear, this can include word such as "Hightide" "Thriller" "Horror" "Short Film" etc. which would then link to the movie clip. You could also include more generalised words such as "Norfolk" which is the location of the film as people who like the area might be interested in watching something based in that location. With YouTube I can also add a description of the video so that people can understand background information including a brief synopsis of the film and credits. A useful feature of these platforms is that though social media and comment options on Vimeo/ YouTube it allows people to voice their feedback what's good about the film and what could be improved about it. This is very good for preparing a better thriller (i.e. final cuts) which can then go further to distribution companies. Although there are some issues to do with this format of promotion as there is no real way to make profits from the product. If I was to go the route fully launching Hightide on to YouTube then the only revenue possible would be though adverts on the video beforehand. Plus if there was to be the whole feature online (Vimeo) for free where anyone could access it then virtually no one would go out and actually purchase it for real. 

A second way I looked at getting my film distributed is through hugely successful multi-corporation companies such as Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures etc. getting interest from one of these big companies would mean the film would be distributed globally and appear in cinemas/ DVD's sold in countries all around Europe as well as across the USA. There would also be no need to create a fan base prior to distribution as people are more likely to go and see a film produced by a popular company such as Universal as oppose to an independently released film. The downside to this method is that by going down this route the companies are unlikely to produce a film which will not guarantee them a large profit. In addition to this the people making the film are 'amateurs' not well known casts or locations.

The better idea to distribute the film to the target audience would be though a professional distribution company. It would not be possible to distribute our own film as this would be too costly and also requires contacts and experience, something which as a first time film maker I would not have.

Finally, an alternative to having the thriller distributed professionally would be promoting the film at festivals such as the BFI Film Festival or Aesthetica Short Film Festival which shows short films, this would be beneficial as it would get the film noticed. Going down the British Film Industry route would be beneficial as they are funded by big American film companies. This backing from the US gives the BFI a budget each year of £117 million to spend on films to be funded which would otherwise struggle on their own. To be part of this the film has to have a British crew, feature mainly British actors, set & located in Britain, have a British director and overall the film must be representative of a British society. My thriller Hightide would meet all these requirements and therefore would be allowed to join funding from the BFI.

Overall it would be the best option to distribute the film independently. Initially launching the film via social media for advertisements then move on to touring different film festivals in the UK promoting the thriller. Then if there is good feedback from that I could then release it to small cinema companies such as Cinema City (in Norwich) which show small independent films companies products. If funding from the BFI was not successful for distortion then simply to get my film noticed as profit would not necessarily by the objective (some income could be collected from adverts on the video).

Influences on Gender

Gender

In our thriller opening we included three male characters and one female. Following Propp's character types, we stereotypically used a male villain. This is used in almost every thriller, examples are the James Bond films and the Dark Knight Trilogy that all contain a villain that is of the male sex. The Bane in Batman is seen as very muscular and powerful over the other characters due to his physical build which we have attempted to replicate by using an actor who is much bigger than our victim.Another convention our opening scene met is the typical 'damsel in distress' type character, being the female victim. This links to the 2008 film Taken which also features a teenage girl as the 'Princess', relating to Propp's character types. She is very weak and is kidnapped within the first few minutes of the film and the character is vulnerable as there are only two teenage girls and no males.

The technique of displaying the female as inferior to the male antagonist is common across many films in the thriller genre. We have incorporated this into our feature, we used specific camera angles, such as two-shots and low- angled shots to portray the girl as the smaller character in comparison to the man. More specifically, we used the shadows of the two characters as this allowed us to present the antagonist looming above the victim and the girls shadow disappears as his shadow engulfs her. Also, as the antagonist drags her along the beach, he is hunched over her like a predator dragging away their prey.

Another feature we incorporated into our thriller was keeping the male character as mysterious and unidentified for as long as possible. We did this by choosing the antagonist to wear a hoodie which meant his face could be covered. It is very common in thrillers for masks to be used and in general for the villain's identity to be kept hidden, an example of this is the beginning of The Dark Knight. Although the intention was to make sure that the audience was aware this was a male antagonist type character. We displayed this by the use of camera angles portraying him as more powerful than the female victim and all the others in our film. Therefore this is why we have been influenced to use a male character for this villain role as it is not only stereotypical but it is also easier in terms of showing him as the most intense character.

During the party scenes there is still only one female character shown, this furthers the idea of her being alone and defenceless and displays the authority of male characters in our thriller. An example of this method is in the recently released 'The Boy Next Door' which is also known for displaying a vulnerable female role. This proves that is it very common for thrillers to use the technique and leads to why we were influenced into including it in our thriller opening scene.