Final piece (thoughts and feelings)

Here is my final piece for my groups thriller opening sequence. 

Meeting minutes

People available for filming and editing:

Mondays:

- At break time everyone is expected to meet for the editing of our filming, it's important that everyone is given different task to manage time more efficiently.

- As Kamau & Sam is able to work for two consecutive periods it'll be during this time that solo clips of Kamau are taken.

- At 11:50 Charlie & Sam will review the clips created earlier and find different ways of integrating them with our current work.

- As Charlie will be by himself on period 5, he'll edit music that we'll possibly use for our project ending.

- Lastly at the end of the day everyone will evaluate and make changes of the work created on that specific date.

Tuesdays:

- In the morning Charlie will be in charge of looking over any errors in our work such as clips that have been poorly made and write down changes needed for our production.

- When everyone has come together it'll be time for the group to come together and put priority on certain task, as no one will be available next period. 

- At this time all tasks are to be completed either in pairs or individually and split by what each person is best at.

Wednesdays:

- Everyone will be available in the morning and with this time we'll check the workings made on monday and tuesday to make sure it's been done to the best of our abilities.

- Kamau & Sam will use the double period to write down more narratives that can be used in order to complete the filming parts of our project.

- When everyone is back together we'll discuss the clips that we've not already put into our filming and decide which is best and place in and delete the unwanted clips.

Thursdays:

- This day will be mostly filled with independent work and we'll divide the work by what we specialise in:

Kamau: Will focus on new ways of making clips and is charge of researching the ways different professional media groups do this.

Sam: Sam will be making changes to the music we've made by designing different versions or modifying what we already have.

Charlie: Charlie will work on editing our clips that have been added recently and placing them in the correct locations so they make sense when watched by an audience.

Fridays:

-  When everyone is together we'll review what's been made over the week and make a short list of what needs to be improved for the coming week.

- Kamau (only if clips have been removed from the filming) will come up with new ideas to be placed in, to fill in the gaps of the clips that have been deleted.

- During the final hours of the day any editing or sound changes will be made within a small time frame as three periods will not be enough to do everything. When finished, anything that still needs changing will be done by those who haven't complete their individual tasks and will be completed as homework over the weekend.

Mood board

Here is my initial ideas put into a mood board, you can see loads of shots that are close ups on specific items which will be a main element of our footage even if we can't use the teams i have selected. i have also got a knife and images that relate to a crime scene as i wish to make my thriller opening look as if there is a murder case to be solved (the young protagonist has been murdered by the older protagonist). all the images selected have also got a dark/ eerie theme which i will take into consideration when editing my work.

Permission for music

Here is the permission needed to be able to use the music that i have chosen for my thriller opening. this means that we are able to use the music without getting in trouble with the people who made the original piece.

Filming update

Here is a quick update on how are filming is going and what our future plans for filming.

1 minute reshoot

here you can see my 1 minute reshoot and the scene that we used as a guide for the shot from 'se7ev'

 

Target audience profile

Type of person- the type of person I'd expect to view my media would be a typical young adult who enjoy thinking and puzzles and thats what will draw them in with our mystery thriller, when I say this I'd naturally expect a 'geeky' type of character to come to mind, but I must also respect the fact that not everyone would enjoy watching a thriller with an in depth story and complicated twists so this may not be the correct way of viewing the typical audience.

 

Age- Because of the content that would be viewed in this project I'd normally expect viewers from as young as 16 up to about 28 to watch because it's a popular genre among this age group and since they're still young adults they'd be more inclined to watch it then, an adult who's normally focused more on their career that's why I've excluded those who are above the age of 28 because normally at this point an adult would have at least started focusing on their career more than cinematic entertainment.

 

Moods and hobbies- I'd expect someone who's quite intelligent to watch the project because of how diverse and interesting thriller movies can be to watch to audiences who enjoy a good mystery, this may extend to most gamers or writers as most people in these fields tend to have a larger imagination than most and would provide the expected feedback and reactions to the type of project I'm planning to make. 

 

Activities- The person I'm thinking of would probably have a Netflix or Amazon account and tune into a variety of different shows like: True blood, The walking dead, Mr robot and other new series as a way of passing the time, but would also be very engaged in what they're watching and be able to explain what it is they've just viewed.

Storyboard

Here is my groups story board which shows the viewer a summery of what our shots will consist of and look like.

Proposal

This is the media propsal made by my group and I, in this presentation we explained what it is we're trying to make with our media project and the different types of characters that will be coming up in the opening, as well as any other thoughts or ideas we had at the time. We have also added the goals we're aiming for by the end of the project and the different techniques we'll use to achieve this.

Meeting minute post

Here is the meeting times for me, Kamau and Samuel. 

Logo idea

Here you can see some screen shots and drawings of my production logo design with a brief explanation of what is happening in the images I have provided.

 

 

 

I started off my logo design by doing a drawing of what I think the logo should look like. I done this by combing objects that are usually related to filming and movies (e.g. an old fashioned camera to show we are filming, a picture frame and a film strip to show my footage is like artwork).

 

Here you can see I based my logo design on my original drawing and used pictures from the internet as well as some editing tools to make the logo look as professional as possible on Photoshop.

Finally, you can see I added the logo to the final piece of footage for my thriller opening with the "J.K.C Productions" to make the film look better.


Here you can see the ideas I had for my logo design, first of all I decided to combine a picture frame, a piece of film, a camera and the letters j, k and c (which means 'just kids with cameras'). Once I found a suitable font and images to use I edited them on Photoshop and later added them onto the footage to show the viewers what company produced the film.

Screen shot of footage

 

Here you can see a few screen shots of our footage at random parts in our editing stage and an explanation of what we are doing to the footage we have gathered before making it into the final piece.

 



In this first screen shot you can see I was playing around with different types of transitions in editing to enhance the effectiveness of each shot. I decided to use a cross fade as it is very smooth when making one shot go into another shot which will be perfect for the thriller opening.

In this shot I am placing footage in an order that will make sense to the viewer and will look best with the footage gathered. I am also speeding up certain shots to add effect for the thriller opening. If it isn't in a certain order it may then be to abstract and make viewers not want to watch it.

In this shot I am focusing on different filters to use. in the end I decided to use 'luma keyed' as it made the shots much darker and it will suit the thriller genre much more than other shots. I also experimented with range of other filters but they were either not fitted for the genre or were to extreme (e.g. made shots very hard to see).

In this clip I am cutting down clips that are too long to use in my final piece or have talking/ other things that will not better my thriller opening sequence.

Audience feed back footage

Here is some footage of fellow media students analyzing our work and giving us feedback on how well our footage is going for the time being and what should be changed in order to get the highest grade possible and to also suit their own personal thriller likings.

Shots I did not use\ edit list

Here in the provided video, you can see a range of shots which I have not used in the final piece for a number of reasons. Some of which include there were people in the background when there shouldn't be, the shots were too dark to use and the camera was not focused properly which caused the shots to be blurry or the camera adjusted itself in between shots.

However, after looking through them I decided to put the shots I shall not be using into a short clip to show that I know what the difference between a good shot and a bad shot and I can also see that even with some very god shots, it doesn't make it good enough to be placed into the final piece.

Evaluation- question 4

                                                          Who will our media be aimed at?

Here you can see a quick interview talking about the target audience for our media that we have produced.

Evaluation- question 7

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to full product?

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Evaluation- question 6

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

Evaluation- question 5

How did i attract my audience?

I would have attracted my audience not only through marketing but by getting myself out there and interviewing them and asking specific questions of what they would like in a thriller as well as what they thought of when it came to our ideas and what they would add (as seen in one of my blogs containing an interview of some young people).

Another way in which we can drew in our audience would be by the quality of shots and editing. no one is going to want to watch a film that looks bad or the combination of shots are sloppy. so by ensuring that my work is to the best it possibly can be with all the skills I have learnt whilst doing the course, I am able to pull people in as they look interested In my work and what its about (allowing a good amount of viewers wishing to see the movie).



Evaluation- question 3

what kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

I wouldn't say that my piece is up to the standard where it could make it big like many Hollywood movies (such as 'the shinning') which will have funding/ backing from huge multinational conglomerates such as '20th century fox'. however, I do believe that the footage provided from my media project could be suitable for a smaller more independent company such as 'film 4' as my footage does have some great quality that may become popular with a big range of audience if it were to be made into a film, T.V show or major piece of media.

understanding of the media developed:

if you look at the blog with my logo idea then you can see my ideas for the production logo and how i came up with the idea for the logo. our production company was made because the members enjoy making footage of thriller openings.

where did I get the funding from?

I had been given some money on behalf of the national

lottery which allowed me to buy the essential equipment needed to be able to create the footage (with the £20,000 given we were able to buy a camera, tripod, a mac with the aps required to edit/make music and we were able to buy clothing/ props for the set).

what does my company make?

my company makes mainly thriller based films/ dramas but can also do many other types of genres relating to media. with this we do all the filming, editing (both footage and music) and make our own music on occasions.

do I have any influences?

there isn't much influences that affect my work other than movies I watched as I was growing up such as 'the shinning'. as I found huge amounts of enjoyment in watching thrillers I knew it would be something that I would like to do with my life!

how would I market my film?

there are man ways in which  could get my footage out to the public to draw them in, by using the internet, loads of people can get access to my marketing from whenever and wherever as well as the marketing itself being extremely cheap or free In some cases. this in turn allows a bigger amount of profit to be made with my film as well as the marketing guaranteed to be successful. another way in which  I could use a synergy such as a sound track to go with he film. not only is that another way of gaining money, I am advertising someone else's products whilst they are advertising mine as well!

where would my movie be distribute?

my movie will be distributed where ever the demand is high. I will find a way for consumers to demand my movie in their local area and if the demand is high enough, then it will be played. not only am I avoiding losing money by playing my movie in places where there isn't going to be many viewers, I am also able to market my film once again via word of mouth/ the internet. my film itself will be show in more independent cinemas as I will not be as big as the huge movies made by multinational conglomerates (e.g. 'gravity').



Evaluation- question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2 from char meh

Evaluation- question 1

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

My interpretation of the question: how close is your thriller opening to actual real world thriller openings?

9 images of thriller openings:

9 images of my thriller opening:
 

(pictures are numbered from the top left being 1 and the bottom right being 9. Along to the right, down and repeat).

By looking at the pictures provided, you can see there are various similarities for both pictures to say my thriller opening can be classed as a thriller opening. However, there are also a few points which I could have adjusted to allow my piece to come across more as the genre that I was aiming for.

Picture analysis:

Pictures 9 for thriller openings and picture 2 for my thriller opening:

In the pictures that I have selected you can see the similarities in the type of editing used because it looks very dark and gloomy which is perfect for the thriller opening as it fits the selected genre. You can also see the person who edited both shots have added an effect to make the shot look a little bit jumpy and old fashioned which in turn make the shot look much creepier and better for a thriller.

However, in pictures 7 and 1

you can also see how the camera is looking down on the victim to show the dominance of the evil protagonist. This tells us as the viewers that the protagonist has got some kind of control or obsession with the person they are looking at and are going to harm them or are planning an evil plot to get to the victim. 

Points to improve on:

in some of my shots you can see that there is vibrant colours used. Even though they were used effectively in my footage to introduce an evil theme, the other shots provided did the same thing without the colours which should be something I should look to try and do for future reference.

Music plan

this was my initial music plan which i made on garage band, even though i like the music i do not think it will suit my idea i have for the footage as it feels too dark and heavy in comparison to a softer image i have in my head for music.

here you can see the music i have decided to go with instead of the music i made as i feel its softer than the one i have created and is a really smart twist on Drakes hit 'hotline bling'. the piano is really effective for thriller opening in my opinions as it sets a oft yet sad tone.

my future intentions will be too shorten this and slow it down as i feel the current speed of this ruins the mood i have pictured in my head.

the music i have selected has had permission to use in the footage as it is not trademarked in any way which means it is open to the publics use.

Rough cut and evaluation

Rough cut

Evaluation

So far I believe that the footage we have gathered and edited up to this point is very good! I like the shots that I have at the moment as I feel it doesn't give away too much about the story but it does give the viewer a hook which will make them want to see more. I also like the range of editing I have added with shot length, transitions as well as filters over certain shots (e.g. plying with the contrast for the show shot!).

However, in order to improve this I will need to finish off the editing that I have done so far and ensure that the shots that I have gathered are in a suitable order to make the opening sequence interesting, appealing to the viewer and make sure that the footage stays an opening sequence and not an opening chapter as well as guaranteeing that the genre it is-is maintained. this may mean I might have to record some more shots, change around the shot order and add different filters and transitions for the final piece of footage for my thriller opening

All in all I feel happy with what I've done so far and feel that my work as potential to go far!

Marketing for the thriller

Marketing plays a huge role in producing a movie, the more people you get to watch your film the better the revenue will be if it becomes a block buster hit, it's also important to maintain a budget as going over the amount you have is a common mistake made by most production companies and this leads to debt. 

 

The key to making someone want to watch your film, is making the perfect trailer for it to be advertised, without any visuals of your movie, it'd be impossible for the target audience of that production company to even become remotely excited without it already being a known series already, and as this will be my first film just writing text will not be enough.

 

One of the best resources for advertisement is commonly not looked upon as being useful, because of the amount of other videos on the streaming service but YouTube being the largest streaming service in the world is the perfect place for any start up movie producers as it is free. meaning that the only thing needed to publish your movie for advertisement is a YouTube account. 

 

Another popular service for those not willing to spend money is kick starter this is a project driven website made entirely for those who want to build projects but don't have to money to do so. Kick starter allows users to make videos and put them up as a type of advertisement, where generous people can pledge money towards your cause as you attempt to reach your goal of money, this allows the increase of budget when trying to pay for more expensive methods of advertisement such as using billboards or television ads.

 

Possible fonts

Small details make a big difference when making a title for the film, when writing is slanted and has pointed edges this normally hints at a horror film, this may also be presented by colours of the text, which make all the difference when trying to establish what you want your audience to think, I'll provide some common examples that will present this way of thinking.

An example of horror:

Looking at this image it's easy to tell it's a horror because of the background being dark, and the text in general saying 'house of the dead' the way the font shows this is by making the edges of each letter sharp and bold to stand out, and the merge between red and black to present a type of blood in each of the letters presents this effect without the audience having to pay too much attention to this blend of colours.

Thriller movies are different from horrors in the way they present their movies, it's a more mysterious, problem solving aspect and by doing this I believe by adding the perfect background the text almost becomes transparent, and example of this may be shown by the title for the movie 'Inception' a movie all about trying to deceive others through smart ways of manipulating the brain.

As shown by the image above, the background of the maze forms the words inception by leaving spaces in the middle. This is a smart way of making a title and just shows how complex the movie is going to be even before watching it.



So here you can see a list of fonts that I believe can be suited for a thriller as they are basic but can represent a thriller:

1) This font is very thin and basic which could relate to something not being noticeable and that something is being hidden maybe (doesn't stand out like something in the footage).

2) This font is like a type writer which could relate to the footage being very dated (an old detective thriller maybe).

3) Here the font is very smart and neat which could relate to an 'inspector calls' which can show what the characters may be like in the footage (very posh and well presented which could be like another old fashioned thriller).

4) Here you can see a bold font which could tell us that the thriller could be filled with very harsh events (more action then your normal thriller) as it is making a statement of what the storyline could be).

5) Finally, you can see this font is very basic and thin yet it isn't like number 1! this font does not give away a lot about the storyline which is both good and bad as it docent give any of the type of thriller in which doesn't reveal anything but also doesn't give viewers an idea of what ma happen.
 

Editing

 

When editing in thrillers it's important that the audience gain all the emotions that the directors are trying to give them. For example the god father church scene the director shows multiple things on the screen happening at the same time whilst the main character is in the Church making him look very innocent as he's looking at his child. We as the audience know that this is not the case, as we know that he's actually organized a lot of the murders that happen throughout the scene giving a mixed amount of emotions which is achieved through the editing of the film.

As his normal personality is that of a smart and calculating man, this scene was done to perfection just to show how well prepared he is, even during innocent scenes such as this one, although killings are still happening at the same time. It's important that films are able to make good use of editing because of how it makes the movie individual from other movies of the same genre.

Barthes code

Barthes code:

 Proairetic code (action code): Proairetic code means that the actions that take place earlier throughout a film will cause a effects later on during the story such that they're almost linked of with a reason behind the event. Proairetic code allows the audience to stay interested in the film and allows them to question what will happen next, this is a good way keeping the audience entertained.

Hermeneutic code(enigma code): This code means that questions that are made through the choices of a story often to  leave the audience unanswered about questions they may have about a particular plot point, this can be used in a creative way such as in the genre of thriller where it's needed to make the audience think a little more than normal.



Animatic

Here is my groups animatic and a brief description of what's going on:

In the first few shots you can see footage of a boy in a wooded area, at which point the shots change quickly to another shot repeatidly. Then you see more shots of the boy walking and focusing on key aspects such as his chain and his shoes. After this you can see a few abstract shots to leave space between the storyline of the opening sequence. Then, you can hear sirens and can see a shot of a detective solving the mystery of what happened to the boy (previously in the video you can see someone watching the boy so it could be him). Finally you see 'The Missing' come up on the screen (this is a temporary title which i used for the  time being which could be subjected to change later on).

Treatment

The scene will open up with the protagonists walking through various locations (parks) trying to look as innocent as possible, we want this to emphasize his personal belongings (e.g. shoe) as this will be an important factor later on in the story. We also want to show the 'stalker' who will be following him through these various locations and as we have picked areas with a lot of vegetation and cover from sight, this has allowed us to use the background as a hiding place for our antagonist.

While following the protagonist we want to demonstrate concern in the character as if he knows he's being followed, without him being too cautious. When the time is right we show the 'stalker' coming closer to the protagonist and the screen will fade in to his personal belongings once again so that the audience understand that these items are important for the rest of the opening. When taken away we show the 'stalker' with an obsession by making him sniff the clothing of the protagonist this shows the stalkers sick nature and to portray this more we'll show pictures of the taken character as well. During the end of the opening we'll show the belongings again and make the 'stalker' look at them each separately but toss them to show his lack of interest, lastly in the end we'll show the body twitching to show that the protagonist is still alive and looking towards the stalker who's face will not be revealed.