The Production Report

In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our task was to produce a thriller opening sequence, we chose ours to be aimed at 15 year olds as we thought that this is the age when most people do not worry about things they see on the screen. We chose this as the BBFC allows us to have sequences of action and scenes of gore as long as it is not too visual. It is hard to define the thriller genre as there is many sub genres with in this genre however a thriller genre usually contains fast action or psychological events. A thriller normally contains a killer, suspect, investigator and a victim, usually starting with a victim, keeping us in suspense about who the killer may be. In the title you have to show who has been involved in the creation and who has starred within it. It is important that the audience is able to understand what is happening at the beginning and can see the action clearly. We can do this through the use of many different camera shots and angles, as well as this we can also use editing to ensure that the narrative flows. Identifying who the victim or the suspect can also aid this we can do this through the costumes they may be wearing or through the reactions they have in certain situations. Thrillers are often seen as dark and gloomy films with the picture not always being clear to ensure that the audience is kept in suspense. They are also always seen to be set either far away from any big cities or right in the centre of one, contradicting each other, the only thing that is really common between to the two is that there will always be isolation. Neither of these elements are sure to change. A thriller normally begins with equilibrium which is then broken by that of a killer, and then the equilibrium is restored normally by the finding of the killer. However some directors like Luc Beeson decide to have action at the beginning enticing the audience carry on watching the film. They also may show the killer in the opening sequence allowing the audience to know what the characters do not. In Brian De Palma’s, “The Untouchables” he begins the film with the opening sequence in the train station. This is an effective opening as you can see the dominant character as he is shown from a low angled shot, making him seem more dominant and powerful; there is also the good use of the clock within this opening sequence showing that he is waiting for somebody. As well as setting the scene and film you also get the first part of the action towards the end of the scene when you see the two gangs come together until there is only one left. The use of sound builds up the tension within the scene as you can here the babies’ pram dropping down the stairs making the tension peak until the end of the fight scene. Also this sequence is effective as when the action begins to build up the edits between shots are quicker to ensure the chaotic part to the scene is seen the same way for the audience, making the audience feel like they are physically in the action. Watching and evaluating those thriller openings helped me create my own thriller opening as it ensured that I had a good understanding of what was expected in an opening sequence all of which involved some action. They also gave me knowledge about the editing as most of them whenever the action began the cuts were far faster than any other point with the scene. For my opening sequence I have ensured that my thriller shows the killer; however just like all other thrillers keeps you in suspense as you do not get a clear view as well as this you can also see build up in pace through the changing of camera angles making my opening seem more frenzied and also more realistic, I wanted to do this as I wanted to make the audience feel more involved within the film and also to make sure they felt what the character may be feeling. I helped define the characters through mise-en-scene for example the costumes the characters were wearing showed the difference in their roles. I decided to do this to make it clearer to the audience what was happening. However I would add more sound effects as at the moment there is no sound although this does add effect to the piece there could always be a heart beat or a scream to help enhance the whole sequence.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my production I have stereotypically shown youth to be thugs wearing huddies and hanging around in gangs. Not that I think this is true about the youth of today but I wanted to show how intimidating a group of youths could be and what any passer by would be thinking about as they approached a gang of youths. I showed them to be thugs through there costume as all of them were wearing hoodies hiding their identity as well as this it makes them look more intimidating to the audience. This use of costume is stereotypically what you expect to see youths wearing. As well as this I chose only males to perform these roles making it a more brutal, as males are more dominant and powerful as well as this, the victim who saw the attack was a female as they are seen as more delicate, making them seem more vulnerable throughout my piece. We showed this through camera angles like point of view shots, we made these fast cuts to show the panic that the character felt.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
My film would be distributed by Lionsgate, I think the main reason that my film should be distributed by this organisation is because it has dealt with thriller and horror films before, the most well known of them being saw. As well as this the company has also managed to create success with such films like American Psycho. With this organisation been a big and well known one it means that the audience may want to watch more as they have seen other films distributed by Lionsgate which have been good meaning that they will think my production is good as it is distributed by such a company. Frank Giusta founded the company in 1995 and started off by buying a number of small distributors for example Artisan entertainment. This company is located in California USA.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
My film will be aimed at 15 year olds to about 40 year olds as this the age where most people begin to watch thriller films as well as this it also the age that many other thriller films are aimed at. Mainly because of the narrative that will be involved with the thriller stories for example the BBFC will not allow any detailed gory scenes until the film is within this age range as well as no allowing any real scenes of violence. I think that the main bulk of my audience will be males as they are more interested in the frightening and gory scenes that may be involved within a thriller. They will be expecting to see some action within the film therefore it is important to ensure that this is added within the film. I do not think there will be a certain income that my audience has to have or a certain background that they will have to have come from as I believe that everybody will be able to relate to what my film is about as well as this they can understand it as the story starts and ends in one film therefore it is not a follow on from any other film. I found this research out through asking people to fill out my questionnaires, I found that most of my audience expect a thriller film to be dark as well as this they also expect to see a murder weapon.

How did you attract/address your audience?
I ensured that my thriller’s opening sequence has action involved within to entice the audience to watch it as well as this I also finished it on a cliff hanger to ensure that my audience would come and watch it to find out what happens next with that scene. With the mise-en-scene that was used ,such as the costume, I think this will appeal to my audience as they will all be able to understand and relate to what I am trying to represent with the thugs that are portrayed in my piece. As well as this I think the beginning will be very appealing as the audience do not find out what is going on within the sequence as there is just the woman walking down the road therefore there is nothing suspicious about it. During editing we wanted to make faster cuts during the action scene to make the audience feel within the action as well as this we also wanted to show the frantic actions that were going on in the action through the editing, however this proved to be difficult but we still managed to make the scene seem chaotic as we had a faster pace during that scene as well as this we put the audience into the action as we used P.O.V shots. I want the audience to want to find out what happens next within the scene as well as this I want the audience to wonder why the thugs are beating up the other guy, as there may be a further plot behind the story. As the plot within my sequence is not clear, enabling the audience to make their own judgement on what may be happening throughout the film. However I do want to show them what they may see throughout the film and allow them to relate to characters that they feel sympathy for, like the victim. I think that this opening to a thriller meets most of the expectations that my audience may have although it does not make the plot clear, it does give them action as well as leaving them wondering what happens next. They may not be scared by the events happening on the screen; like they would in most thriller openings. On the other hand they may be shocked by what they see on the screen, giving them a similar affect. I do not think that BBFC guidelines have affected what is in my thriller opening scene as you do not have to show anything that is really gory within the opening scene. However I do think they would make me tone down any violence that may be seen within the film to ensure that I reach my target audience as if there is too much in it they will not be able to see the film.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learned through using the camera that unless you are trying to track the character then it is far easier to film with a tripod than it is by filming without. Also I found that for making the action seem more realistic it is better to use P.O.V shots to ensure your audience believes what they are seeing. As well as this I also learnt that it is far better to have more shot then necessary, than only just enough shots, as if you are in editing and find that it may look better if you added in an extra shot, then you do not have the time to go out and shot this. During editing the hardest thing was the CCTV shot, as we could not use the camera to create that effect therefore we had to do all of this during the editing process as well as this we also had to add the date and time onto the CCTV shot. I learnt how to do this during the editing stage as well as this I developed my fading skills as we tried to create a realistic flow between the shots until we had the sharp changes during the action scene. All of our editing was done in Adobe Premier Pro. I learnt how to create the titles through this programme as we decided that we want some to overlap pictures and appear throughout the production. Also I learnt hot to cut the scene with this programme allowing us to make them the length we needed or if we needed to cut out any imperfections. Throughout the shooting stage we learnt that it would be far easier to changing the lighting throughout the piece during editing rather than waiting until night to shoot a scene. We also enhanced some of the sounds within our for example the sound of the heels as the woman ran away. We made these louder as we did not want them to be as quite as they were as well as this it also added an extra effect as they faded out towards the end of the production.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During the preliminary task we did not do as much planning as we could have done meaning we wasted a lot of our shooting time trying to figure out what angles we needed. However we managed to get every shot we needed to produce our piece. I think that the editing process preliminary stage was successful as we managed to ensure the performance ran smoothly and we added in fades. As we did not do enough planning for this first task I thought it would be far easier if we did extra planning for this next task. We did decide to use far more camera angles for example we intended to use low angled shots of the victim or just shots of there feet to show the build up in pace. As well as this we wanted to us longer ranged shots as in the preliminary task all of our shot were fairly close to the action. Also we had a shot missing when it came to the editing stage which meant we had to work around that problem as we did not have time to film again therefore this time I thought it would be easier if we had a shooting script. The first problem during the preliminary task we did not know what shots we needed, this was the major problem as it meant we had to spend half our shooting time figuring out what shots we needed to ensure the smooth flow throughout our piece. Also there was the problem of planning before as we were not certain of where we were going to shoot our preliminary task until we actually had to shot it, we found the space last minute and it was the space we were thinking of using. I do not think theres a lot of things I would do differently in my preliminary task as it was a simple task as well as this mine was not poor however we could of added more shots and cuts to build up the tension but we did not need to build up the tension, although it would have kept the audience in suspense. As a group I do not think we worked very well, for starters we did not prepare very well for the preliminary task. When we did I did most of the work apart from the story board which never got finished. The other member of the group was in the process of leaving therefore he was not doing a lot of work. This meant that for the preliminary task I did all the planning work. This eventually did not matter as my group members did not even look at this throughout the shooting stage. During this shooting stage we shared this equally, this turned out to be a success as we got enough shots as well as using the best camera man for each part. Then the editing stage, my group members did not use computers very well. As one of them had left and the other just did not understand therefore I did most of the editing for the preliminary task, although my group member did prompt me on what looked good and what looked out of place within our piece. Meaning that we shared this task as we did it as a group. All in all I think we produced a good preliminary task although we had a lot of trouble getting to the finished piece.