R1-13 : THRILLER PROJECT 2008/9

Monday 17 November 2008

Evaluation

1. In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The title of our thriller is ‘Curiosity’. In our opening sequence we included many thriller conventions such as fading in or out, black and white or distorted images. We also didn't gave out too much information about our movie in opening sequence to make audience more intrigued with it. From the opening sequence audience can gain that there is a men who want to kill a teenage girl fro unknown reasons. From opening sequence you also cant tell who is main character , which also can make audience interested because opening sequence focused mostly on bad guy, and not in every movie bad guy is a main character. There is also many other conventions like u can see sequence where the person puts knife in his jacket, or where he puts his gloves on to not leave any finger prints, which gives audience an idea that this movie is about killing. One of the shots was faded red , and it was a sequence where we introduced picture of victim who is a girl. Connotation of red colour is blood and violence and I think it gives audience an idea who is going to be a victim.
We also did very dark and mysterious soundtrack to our thriller. I think it was quite successful with our actual footage coz it gives a loads of atmosphere to actual movie. Music is one of our strongest points , and we spent a lots of time on experimenting and trying to get right sound, and at the end we got some good feedbacks.

2. How does our media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller opening sequence there isn't much about a social groups , because it mainly focused on a serial killer, and u cant compare him to a specific social group. However on few shots we got pictures of teenagers who are possible victims, and on those pictures teenagers represented as a friends who hugs each other , or another same situation. So our thriller represents teenagers as good friends or just friendly people, which isn't always true, but to make movie more dramatic I think it is a good idea to make victims look happy on photos.
Main character , who also a killer isn't looking too old as well (well I played it ), it can give audience sense of mystery, because he might have been from their old school, or even best friend, so why would best friend want to kill them. This represents that teens can be really cruel sometimes and be involved into bullying or other dirty business.

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

I think that one of best distribution companies would be Lionsgate, because they just did thriller/horror movie ‘Saw 5’ and it was really successful, so I think it would give my thriller a bit more of popularity. Previous Saw movies were very popular as well, and since our thriller is thriller/horror I think it would be good company to distribute out movie.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience we aimed in our thriller opening is 15+ too any age, even 60. This movie is going to be really psychological and in my opinion it will be suitable for people who are only older than 15 years old. I think if person younger than 15 they might not understand movie and find it just really violent and inappropriate and it might case a lot of trouble between parents. Also if person is too young movie might have bad influence on them because it contains violence. This movie is suppose to be watched by thriller fans otherwise they might find it a bit weird, because it not always easy to understand thriller movies.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract right audience we tried to represent right genre of a movie from the beginning. We also made quite mysterious atmosphere and there is nothing is actually clear to the audience so that would want them to see the end of the movie and that makes them more interested. Also we made our movie quite stylised especially with colours. We tried to make it look very retro like , because today retro becomes very popular. Most of our movie made in black and white and loads of images are distorted to give to the audience certain atmosphere of psychopathic mind of a killer.


6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

One of the main things I learned while doing this project is how to use loads of software and macs in general. I learned how to use final cut programme , how too copy footage from video tape to a PC and how to put it in an order that u want. I also learned how to edit clips with it and delete unnecessary sounds that might have been recorded while filming. I learned how to import and convert final cut movie into a quick time format.
Another program that I learned was garage band. We used it to create out sound. I learned a lot of functions for creating sounds and then also editing and converting into a mp3 format and then also importing it to a final cut and combining it with my footage that we have done.

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


From the beginning when we started to plan our thriller opening we had a good idea, but after editing it with final cut and putting sound it looks quite different to our animatics. I like the idea that after u start working after u planed things , we still got some other ideas on the way that made our project quite successful. I also learnt that some things that u planed not always go good after u done them. When for the first time we put our first soundtrack on the top of our footage it sounded really bad and not in theme and we had to change it for quite a bit.
I also learnt that it very important to plan your time to do stuff so then u will not forget key things that will not interact your main target. It also important to take your time on things that really important rather than on some stuff that isn't necessary.

Friday 7 November 2008

Feedback

Curiousity:

Shaky camera shots were very good. The simple music was good as it wasn't so loud or tuneful it took you away from the filming. It was a classic thriller opening maybe leading into an action thriller by the way the person was getting ready to go out in his kit.

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feedback

- music was different and effective.
- the editing of the camera work was steady and well-done.
- the transition from black and white to red was good to show who the victim was.
- there's a possibility for voyeurism to develop from the plot, which draws the target audience in.

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Feedback

Curiousity

Music complements the video well.
Black and white video footage builds a darker atmosphere.
Use of red one one clip to show significance to a character.
Credits were not noticeable.
Showed signs of voyeurism using props like photos.
Fear of the unknown, footage doesnt give too much away.

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curiousity

R1-13 : THRILLER PROJECT 2008/9