Final Opening Sequence Thriller

Evaluation Task 7- Looking back at your preliminary task what do you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I decided to use prezi to do this talk because it offered a interesting, and simple interface to create some very interesting, and informal presentations.
In this presentation I look back on my preliminary task and say what I felt that I had learned in the progression o the full project.

Evaluation Task 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In this evaluation task I set out to discuss how we utilised technology in our media product. Please watch the video with captions on. I added annotations to the video and went through what technology I used and how it was used to improve our media product.

I have learned that it is important to fully utilise technology within a media production. During the process I learned that choosing the correct settings were highly important because without choosing the right settings our video would look wrong, for example the white balance had to be set up correctly each time. We also had to adjust the file type to 1080i, this is because it has a very small file size, and the quality difference is not noticeable and is minimal, it also meant that we could record for longer without worrying about replacing memory cards.

We usitlised a soundtrack from a royalty free source, this meant that we could use the non diegetic soundtrack without issues. The soundtrack added to the ambience of the video. I learned how to successfully overlay a drone over the video, add a hiss and crackle to make it sound more like a old record. 
We used the title tool within Adobe Premier Pro, this meant that we could add customisable titles to our media product.
We used colour correction within a few of our shots, we did this because we wanted them to display the correct connotations.
We used Adobe Premier Pro to edit our video on, this is because it is very advanced, and offers a easy to use timeline. It was easy for us to use because we did the preliminary task on this. 
We utilised sound effects from a sound effect library that was located on the editing computer, and this library was collected from several licensed sources. The library allowed us to add certain effects like the clock, but we also had a alter some of the clips, for example the clock we had on the file had 2 ticks per second, so we removed every other tick, and this made it sound more like a cheap wall clock.
We also used lighting with a daylight bulb so that the colours would look right, and so that we could use a low ISO. 

Evaluation Task 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

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I had utilises this new animations online software tool. In the animation I show a interview of how I attracted and addressed my audience.

Below is the text script for the video.

1INTERVIEWER: Today we will be having a exclusive interview with the one and only Mr. err ah. Oh Mr. Oliver Christensen.

2INTERVIEWEE: Err? Hi?

3INTERVIEWER: So looking back upon your end product and the intended target audience what were the pleasures that you target audience can take from your opening sequence?

4INTERVIEWEE: We tried to adhere to intended target audiences by looking at what our audience would want. We concluded that they wanted we provided them with; A plot that is open to the audiences interpretation, and the audience would have to piece together the narative, our storyline is creepy, and puts the audience on edge. Our storyline is mysterious, and the environment seems slightly old fashioned, and would make the audience feel uncomfortable due to the unnerving extreme closeups. We figured this because our target audience is a male audience ages from 30 and upwards. 

5INTERVIEWER: Cool. So what genre have you created?

6INTERVIEWEE: We have created a media product that adhered to the conventions the subgenera of a phycological thriller. 

7INTERVIEWER: Nice. What films did you find were influential to your media product? 

8INTERVIEWEE: We thought that Dexter, Psycho, Love Object, And Attracted were influential because they explored them and conventions that we used.

9INTERVIEWER: I saw that your opening sequence was in some old looking room, where was it?

10INTERVIEWEE: Ah, thought you would like it. It was shot in a boarding house at the school. We did not only choose this because of its convenient location, but it because a bedroom would be familiar to the audience, meaning that they would be invested and help the realism, and adds mystery to the media product. The realism highlights the horror, and will allow the audience to become invested in the character.

11INTERVIEWER: All nice and everything but what is your plot line, and how could this attract your audience?

12INTERVIEWEE: Our thriller features a girl getting ready until it is revealed that the person getting the girl ready is in fact a man! This is unexpected and would not seem right to a audience, this is because a very normal task like getting ready in the morning has been turned creepy and strange. Our thriller does not spooned the audience meaning that they will have to dive deeper to find the meaning for themselves.

13INTERVIEWER: Damn! thats creepy. Tell us a bit about your characters?

14INTERVIEWEE: Our Male character has all his details hidden, but intact he is a psychopath who is incredibly careful at what he does, he is a complex individual who is unpredictable. With our female character she is meant to be dead, and we make the audience feel sympathy four her. 

15INTERVIEWER: What social groups are you appealing to?

16INTERVIEWEE: We are trying to target a mature male audience, we are doing this with several aspects of the video, and have created a complex narrative which requires experienced critical thinking that is not available from a younger audience.

17INTERVIEWER: So that music in your opening sequence, can you tell us a little about it?

18INTERVIEWEE: Yeah our non diegetic soundtrack adds to the ambience of the whole sequence, and the increasing tempo increases to add tension to set up the audience to know that she is not doing the makeup herself. The name of the non diegetic soundtrack the we used is “it hurts to say goodbye”, this actually matches our style, and plot line, because it is about a guy who cannot say goodbye to his dead sister. 

19INTERVIEWER: I saw that you utilised titles in your sequence, you had some pretty big names up there tell us a little about it.

20INTERVIEWEE: We started off with the studio name, this is because the name of the media institution is meant to have traditional connotations, and conventions. Our famous actors will help to attract a audience and will make people want to go and see the film. 

21INTERVIEWER: That perfect editing, tell us how you achieved it?

22INTERVIEWEE: Thats a trade secret….. Ok I will tell you. We used a rhythm that we would call over in our head ’123 and cut’, and repeat ‘123, and cut’, if you look over the sequence again you will see this pace reflecting upon the sequence. We tried to achieve a smooth cut from event to event by making the video cut on action, and ensuring that the cuts were butter smooth. We kept fancy transitions, and effects out of a video to give it a raw appearance that would look old, like the time that it is set in, to attract a older audience. 

Evaluation Task 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

We conducted the task by selecting 2 open questions, and 2 closed questions. We selected these because we thought that it was a good balance in terms of asking the right questions, and having good data in the end to work with. 

We set out by going around with mobiles and recording peoples answers to the questions. We went around in groups of 2, one person to film, one to operate the camera. The reason that we decided to use the iPhone was because it offers 4k resolution meaning that it would allow for us to add some digital stabilization, to compensate for the fact that we were using it hand held, we also used the iPhone because it is compact, and we all had them so we would not need to loan a camera, or accept liability for others actions. 

When we met up and airdropped the files onto my iPad where I opened the files and lined them up upon the timeline, and trimmed the beginning and end to match the dialogue with the start and end points. I then added some digital stabilization, and added in some intro text. I then used the built in export to YouTube function upon the app.

I then inputted all of the data into a chart (top left). From the chart I then made a few charts, and other data presentational devises to make the data easily interpretable.

From bar chart "A" I can see that men are more interested in thrillers than women. I can also tell that the women have an evenly split opinion over if they like thrillers. From this data I can see that a good target market, to market for a thriller film would be a female audience.

The pie-chart "B" is interesting and can be analyzed through more than its literal meaning. We asked the question "how do you feel after watching a thriller", people who are interested in thrillers deeply will answer with something like 'depends on the film', whilst others who don't mind watching a film will answer with an answer like scared, tense, or intrigued. When selling a film you will have to tailor for an audience who is deeply interested in the genera, meaning that someone who answered "depends on the film" will be more likely to go and watch the film in cinema, and/or buy it. Looking at the data I would interpenetrate that 75% of men are a potential audience, this means that for a media institute it would be wise to target men.

In the "C" graph you can see that 2/3^rds of the men found thriller to be there favorite genre, whilst only 1/3^rd of the women found thriller to be there favorite genre. This again would tell me that men are a more stable option for targeting our thriller towards.

In graph “D” we can see that most of the women claim that they watch thrillers with their partner, but no men claim that they watch it with their friends/by themselves mostly. With these results you have to read between the lines a bit, because we were asking about who they watch it with mostly, because we can assume that the same amount of men have a girlfriend/partner, this means that men watch it more, and sometimes women watch it, and because they watch it so rarely they watch it mostly with their partner mostly they say that they watch it mostly with their partner. I believe that the results show that women will usually be the ones that will sit down on the sofa and might watch what there partner is watching, meaning that the women do not usually choose film that they watch, but instead watch what there partner is watching. This actually adheres to the stereotype that is given to relationships between men and women.

In conclusion I believe that the type of people who would watch our film, hence also market it towards would be;  A male person aged 22 and up because of the results that we received. It is possible that our method of using satisfied sampling was not 100% accurate because it was only taken from a small sample. Also because the interviews were all taken inside of the walls of our school the results may be slightly biased. If I was to repeat the experiment then I would go out to several locations including a shopping centre, a high street, and a not so busy side street, and conduct 50 interviews in each location, this would give us a large varied sample, additionally we would have to work with 150 results which would take some considerable time to work with. I would also change my questions to ones such as “how old are you”, “what is your favorite genre of film”, “do you like thrillers”, “if you watch thrillers with your partner who chooses the film”, “what gender are you”, and “on a scale of 1-10 how much would you rate your interest in thrillers”.

Below is a profile I have created to show what someone that we would see as ideal would look like online.

Evaluation Task 3- What kind go media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Task 3 Media Studies AS from Oliver Christensen

In the above presentation I go through which institution would make both our actual film, and our opening sequence, and why.
I used slide share to create this, slide share is a new technology that I decided to utilise to complete this task.

Evaluation Task 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In the following essay I will be discussing the four technical areas within our thriller, and how it represented age, gender, and class.

Mise-En-Sene is used a great deal within our thriller to convey certain connotations. The corset used connotes that the girl is not normal, and makes it seem as if something is off. The point at which the corset is red is roughly halfway though the sequence and shows the girl having a corset put on. A corset is a piece of clothing which requires someone to assist with putting it on, this makes the audience aware that there is someone else present in the room, and that the girl is not alone. The fact that the girl is not alone adheres to the connotation that young women are not able to do tasks for themselves, this makes the girl seem defenceless and weak. 

The record player used in the extract represents the girl as being old fashioned, this gives the girl a sinister, and evil representation, this representation subverts from the stereotype that girls are sweet, and harmless. The part in the extract where  this is shown is in several shots were the 4 shots are used; the high ankle wide shot, the extreme closeup high angle shot, the low wide shot, and the low extreme closeup. A record player is seen as old fashioned, and if a girl was seen to be using one then it would both make a audience feel uneasy because it is seen as being something that a older generation would use, this would also create a sense of someone else of being in the room because it would not be normal for her to be using it.

The girls soft skin makes the audience relate, and sets them up to feel sympathy later on, the soft skin adheres to the stereotype of girls having perfectly soft skin. The closeups of the girls soft skin can be seen throughout the sequence. The use of the soft skin makes the audience relate because when they would see a girl with soft skin they see that she looks young, and humans are instinctively paternal to these features, meaning that a audience would want to help this girl.

Mud on the girls face fingers and feet make the audience question, and wonder why the girl is muddy yet not doing anything about it, this subverts from the stereotype that is that girls always wear lots of makeup, and are blemish free. You can see the girls mud on her face throughout the sequence. The mud would make a audience feel curious, and would break the stereotype of girls constantly cleaning, and checking there visual appearance.

The girls hair is long this adheres to the stereotype that girls have long hair. The use of the long hair will make a audience feel sympathy, this is because commonly girls with long hair are seen as perfect, but venerable, and the fact that she is showing little movement makes the audience feel anxious.

The dirty gloves used by the male character adheres to the stereotype that men use dirty tools, but always have the right utility for the job in hand. The gloves can be seen at the last 10 seconds at the extract. The use of the gloves makes the male character appear strongly male, and makes the audience aware that he may be a outdoor working man, and has recently got his hands muddy, and would connote that the mud on his gloves is connected to the mud on the girls face giving a representation that the man has sinister intentions, or has done something sinister.

The use of the old clock within the establishing shots makes the audience feel as if the scenario is old and that the people are of are upperclass. The clock adheres to the stereotype of being upper classed, because there is the presence of a expensive and luxury item.

The girl is shown to be venerable and the audience feel sympathy for the girl, this is done from the camera angles. Throughout the entire sequence you can see the girl is only shown with a high angle, or a straight forward shot, this is done to portray the girl as a weak and vulnerable, this adheres to the stereotype that is given to girls of being fragile and vulnerable. A high camera angle makes a person appear to be weaker, this is because of the perspective of the facial features.

The male character is portrayed as being strong, dangerous, and domineering, this adheres to the stereotype that men are dominant. The man is only shown once in person, it is at the end of the sequence, this is a low angle shot, it is framed so that the character seems bold and powerful, this connotes that he has done bad and is the antagonist.

The use of extreme closeups of the girl gets you close to her and makes the audience feel that they have a connection with her, and feel sympathy. The extreme closeups makes the audience feel a immense connection, because it is forced upon the audience with nothing else to look at apart from the aspects of her face. The connection with the audience makes the audience aware of her ‘beat up’ look, and the look adheres to the stereotype of women getting abused.

The whole sequence utilises short shot durations this makes the audience aware of the youth of the characters, it then slows down to make the audience aware of the fact that the girls life is coming to a end. The fast pace adheres to the stereotype of the youth leading a fast paced life, whilst the slow down in shot duration adheres to the stereotype of death, and life slowing down.

The mans evil intensions are shown clearly in the short sequence of the man putting on the gloves. The short snappy, and distressed clips give connotation that adhere to the stereotype of a antagonist, because of the short snappy sequences that resemble a quick jabbing motion.

In our media product we used colour correction on certain parts, for example we made the nail polish appear a lot more vibrant and saturated, this brought out the colours and made it have connotations that adhere to a young female stereotype.

The titles used in the sequence helps to represent a a old fashioned feel to the video which helps to represent the male character which is being represented as older. The titles use a old fashioned serif font, this has connotations of a old age and helps to convey that the girl is not alone, it also creates a juxtaposition with the youth of the girl, this effectively creates tension, that helps to convey the difference in age between the girl, and man.

In the media product we did not have any camera movements of the female, this subverts the stereotype of young women, they are seen as active and moving, this usually means that film makers will try and utilise camera moment to show the young female character as active, but we subverted from this stereotype so that we could show the girl as inactive and weak, hinting towards her being dead.

We utilised a droning sound, and added it to the non diegetic soundtrack, this subverts from the stereotype of little girl bing joyful. The subversion aids to show a juxtaposition between the stressful soundtrack that adds tension to aid with subverting the representation of youth. This is done so that the audience can tell from the juxtaposition that not everything is right.

The non diegetic soundtrack that is used within the sequence connotes that not everything is right, and it also subverts from the stereotype of being young, and listening to pop music, the soundtrack is instead old fashioned and slow paced.

The diegetic soundtrack makes the audience aware that the girl is not ok, and that something is off. The audio is exaggerated on sounds such as teeth brushing, and the combing of the hair effectively creates connotations that subvert from the stereotype of girls makeup being all gloss and glamor. The diegetic soundtrack instead makes the audience feel uneasy and confused building them up to realise that the girl is not alive.

Evaluation Task 1- In what way does your media a products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

To complete evaluation task 1 I turned to Final Cut Pro, I did this so that I had vast amounts of controls over the duration, speed, and layout of the presentation.

I recommend to play the video in full screen, and to increase the quality so that you can clearly see all the text.