Final Piece

This is our final production, I hope you enjoy!

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

For the best presentation for my question 7, I used a different presentation software called Canva. It was simple to use but very creative in allowing me to choose the type of template I wanted with a variety to choose from.

Question 7 by Tyrelle Thomas

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

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

Linking this to the target audience profile being around the age of 16-35, preferably male but having females a secondary audience, they're are particular points in my film which are put in place to stand out and appeal to my target audience. The reasoning behind my primary audience being males is because there is no female character in my thriller opening. When evaluating it, I have noticed this to be a fault in our thriller opening, in ensuring to be able to reach a wider target audience. However focusing on my target audiences overall love for the tense atmosphere, we purposely started off with close ups of the rope restricting the victims movement as be is tied up. This was to instantly engage my target audience and following the hermeneutic code, leaving the audience with unanswered question such as 'Who is he?' 'Why is he in this situation?' 'What are they planning to do to him?’ The use of lowkey lighting in our production was to cause a sense of mystery and suspense as the audience would do not understand what is happening. This was appealing to the audience as this interrogation is one of the most important scenes in our thriller production.  

The use of the echo lets the audience understand how the victim is feeling.

The camerawork was played with a lot for us to get the best clear cut scenes with also trying to still a gritty realism feel to our thriller opening. An example of this is when the victim is assaulted by one of the protagonists with the bat and the thriller cuts to a flashback.

Starting this scene with an establishing shot was for the realism of the situation to really show, as the victim is in location accessible by everyone. In addition, this establishing shot was using to differentiate the scene before and the new scene, showing the audience where the victim is.

The over the shoulder shot was dialogue is for the audience to feel engaged and have a better understanding on the how the situation occurred. Furthermore, this adds to the realism of our thriller because the audience will be able to relate to overhearing a strangers conversation. This may also make them anxious as they may feel as if it can happen to them. The camera positioned behind the tree was to create a sense of voyeurism. 

The non-diagetic sound of the heart beat in the beginning is to immediately add suspense to the thriller, my target audiece will be able to understand the seriousness of the situation. Fading to black when the victim is hit with the bat is to show the difference between the flash back and the present scenes. 

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

For this presentation i used Emaze. Another presentation software that is really simple to use but effective in how creative it makes your work look.

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

This presentation software is called Prezi, it allows you to either make your own presentation form scratch or use one of their inventive templates, with a wide variety to choose from. The transitions between animations works very well.

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

This presentation software called slides and it is different compared to others as you can change the directions that it moves. It changes the presentation and makes it quite creative.

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

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

For this question I did it in two parts. I used Microsoft powerpoint as I knew this question would consist of a lot of writing and needed it be simple.

From my rought cut to final thriller

Working through my AS coursework was very exciting because of how much I learned during the process. All the knowledge i gained, I was the able to apply it to my final thriller video. There was a lot of different things that were wrong with my rough cut which I knew I would have to make sure didn't happen to my final product in order for it to be the best it could be.

In the beginning of my rough cut, I had used my production logo and opening introduction that was originally produced by Warner Bros Pictures. This was to symbolise a real movie opening that is used in all films. However for my final product I did not do this as I wanted to challenge the form of a real media product by going straight into an intense opening scene to really grab my target audiences attention. On the rough cut, using the dream effect available on Final Cut Pro I was able to show the difference between the flashback and the present scenes. This was effective as the dream effect gave my shots a brighter look as the saturation was lower. For my final product this was not the case. I was able to create the same effect by simply lowering the contrast in the first scene and using the echo on the dialogue between the two antagonists. In addition, as the protagonist was hit with a hard object, the fade to black conveyed to the audience that the next scenes would be a flashback to show how he ended up in that situation.

For my rough cut, majority of the scenes has non-diagetic sound added to add to the suspense, portraying the build up to the audience. By doing this, I realised that the story didn't make as much sense because there was not enough dialogue to make some parts tie together. For my final thriller opening I was able to improve this completely. I made sure that I had the right amount of dialogue for the audience to understand the plot, whilst having the diagetic sound low to set the mood of the scene.

The shot types in my rough cut were good as there was a variety, from a panning shot to over the shoulder. However, the shots were not the smoothest which made some of my transitions look slightly uneven. This was a positive learning curve because I was able to make sure that my shots ran smoothly. This was easily achievable as I used two cameras during some parts to make sure that I had a running footage of the entire thriller, as well as the main camera I used to stop and start. Furthermore, this also enabled me to minimise any problems that I may of had with the sound in my final product because I would be able to use the better version. For my rough cut, the sound was an issue as some of the dialogue was not loud or clear enough because I did not have a mic for the camera, therefore the camera would pick up background sound as well as foreground sound. Using Final Cut Pro, I tried to amend this but it still wasn't the clearest.

One of the key aspects that I changed from my rough cut to my final product is the mise-en-scene. Firstly, the costumes using in my rough cut did not match the thriller as it was clearly a school based. The actors are all wearing suits which was not ideal for my thriller opening as it is not as realistic for my audience. On the other had, for my final product, having actors dressed casually adds more suspense because my target audience will be able to understand that it can happen to anyone. In addition, for my final product I made sure the identity of the two antagonists remained hidden to create enigma, leaving the audience with unanswered questions and something to figure out if the thriller was carried on.

At the end of both of the thriller openings, I used a first person shot to allow the audience to relate to the protagonist more. However, the shot I used for my final product was more tense for the audience because it is from the view of the protagonist underneath the cover, looking straight at the antagonist.

Finally, I placed my title sequence at the end of my thriller opening as it allows it to have more of the flow.

feedback

Feedback on my thriller opening was really constructive allowing me to realise what parts of the video I could have improved and parts of my thriller that stood out.
these were text messages I received from people that I had made watch my thriller opening. I made sure that they fit my target audience as it would make the feedback even more relevant.

I had also received YouTube comments, not only from my male target audience but also my female target audience. This was really effective feedback because I wanted to know if the thriller opening would still appeal to my female target audience as it does not have a female actor.

Rough Cut Evaluatiomn

 When evaluating our rough cut, I can clearly see the difference between it and the final piece. My rough cut is before we added any sound effects or music and any of the actors names. This is an important part of our thriller opening as it allowed me to see how effective it can be when you add music that matches the scene, building suspense and the unprofessional look of our opening as it has no names of any actors, the makers or titles. Without the Music, many of the scenes seem bland, they don't have the same effect as our final thriller opening piece as it doesn't build the same tension. Furthermore without music our thriller opening doesn't make a lot of sense as the scenes look quite jumbled.In addition trying to capture the same tension without audio also is impossible, the dialogue adds to the suspense of the film. However it is not only the music and audio, not having any of the titles also makes our thriller look unorganised as all the scenes that fade to black looks as if we are trying to make up for parts of missed filming and putting parts together for it to make sense.

Production company logo

Evidence of music creation

When it came to creating the music, I didn't know what part of the production I wanted to make music for. After a lot of contemplating and planning I came to the conclusion of making the music for the start of the film, showing the production logo and the other made up company to represent my film.

Script

During the production stage of my media production, a script was made for our actors to have a structured role and for them to know their lines thoroughly. The script was only properly put in place for the interrogation scene as I knew before it was filmed that it would have to be filmed more than once for the perfect tension building atmosphere

Script media prod from tyrelle thomas

1 minute reshoot

This one minute reshoot has been designed off the thriller Se7en. As a group we really tried to resembled the thriller and capture the same amount of suspense, with the tense build up. The reason this was an easy piece to film as it did not require much actors. It is more to do with how things are filmed and what type of props will be used to keep the audience on edge and feel uneasy whilst watching it.

Location analysis

Location Analysis

Getting the right location is important for the best outcome for my media production, for it to keep its gritty realism. To complete this, i had to focus on the locations being able to relate to the scene and create a more professional look.

First location: Common Room 

 The first location in my media thriller trailer is inside of their everyday building. This is for the audience to question what type of thriller it will turn into, as it starts off as a casual day. This is effective as thriller films usually have a lot of hostile environments which give away what type of action will take place from beginning as the audience can guess.

Second location: Drama Studio

The second location of the trailer is in for the scene of the kidnapping hence the reason that it will be quite dark in here and the light will be focused on the interregation of the victim. This perfect for this scene because the lighting (spotlights) can be controlled and fulfill its purpose in making this scene as tense as possible. After tampering with the lighting, we turned the drama studio in a secluded, dark and mysterious location.

Evidence of filming/Behind the scenes

This is behind the scene footage as me and Kemuel set up the actors for the first scene in our thriller opening. The angle of the camera may make it hard to see, apologies in advance. This scene was originally meant to continue as the actors walked up the stairs but during our editing we realised that we would be better off if we used a jump cut instead for it to look a lot smoother transitioning from the bottom of the stairs to the top as it would allow the audience to see the characters facial expressions and not the back of them.

Evidence of editing

To add further effect onto my media opening thriller, i added effects to make it look at have a more feel of realism and to show a significant difference from the flashback scenes and the present day scenes.

As you can see, this is the scene of the interregation,as Tauren is pressurised into given up the location of the money by Daniel. This scene in particular is meant to be a spine-chilling flashback which ties in with the present story. To make it apparent to the audience that this scene is a flashback, I thought the best thing to do was to add an affect on all the flash back scenes. The effect that has been used is called Dream. This effect is perfect for its purpose as it makes the scene have a hazed look as if it is an actual flashback. It also increases the lighting to look as if it is focused on the victim. 

The rest of the thriller opening has an effect called combat. It gives more of a realism effect and allows more focus on the actors as they come in one by one in tune with the fast paced music. Before editing the scene it looked to staged and didn't have such a strong build up. The effect made the scene darker.

Lighting technique

For this to work I have uploaded it onto slideshare.

Lighting technique from tyrelle thomas

How woulld you market your thriller?

Marketing

When it comes to marketing a film, there are now a variety of ways that can be seen as very cost effective and at the same time produce similar amount of promotion. Firstly, I would use social media to be one of my most effective ways of marketing my film, most importantly using Instagram and Facebook because of their popularity. This is called viral marketing, one of the quickest ways to reach my target audience of 16-35 because of how frequently they use phones to go on social media websites. I would have small ads that would be posted for the public to see when scrolling through their timeline. Secondly, I would use YouTube. As YouTube is cheaper to use than TV it would make it easier to get my thriller out to the public. However it is not compulsory for them to it as they can skip the add. Fortunately it will be eye-catching enough to stop them from that. Lastly, after gaining enough publicity and popularity through the first methods, I would then use Television to market my thriller. This is the most effective way to market as adds on TV are more compulsory because of the fact that there is no skip button to press when watching a specific channel. I would want it to be on TV around 18:00 and 8:00 because these are the times the most watched soap operas are on also a the loved television programme Simpsons, ensuring the highest consumption.

Meeting times

Meeting times

My group and I have decided on times to meet and film, this schedule will be started from the 4th of February. Some of the times may be seen as quite late into the evening but this is because of the type of scene that we are trying to film.

No new narrative has been added at this point in time and the type of locations are still the same.

Preliminary Task

This is the preliminary task, directed by Kemuel Abadoo, filmed by me and starring Alex and Jayden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM0pGmTeLDQ

Media Animatic

 

Storyboard

Mood board

As you can still see the images that I have used are all relevant to my opening scene as they all have the element of mystery and in some instincts confusion and worry. the confusion and worry is conveyed in many of the pictures as you cannot see what the people are either running from or who they are themselves. This happens to link in deeply to my opening thriller as there are many unanswered questions that will keep playing on the audiences mind. In addition, the camera angles are all similar in the fact that the majority of them show long shots of what is in the distance or places with dark or less lighting. 

Opening scene: Characters

Key characters in the opening scene will be the victim and the two kidnappers. As three minutes is a short period of time, me and my group have decided that we want to be able to get straight to the point of our opening scene and keep our audience as intrigued and into the thriller as possible by using the enigma code, by dropping clues but not clear answers to make sure that we do not give away the entire plot, The victim of the kidnapping will be Alex L and myself and Kemuel A will play the kidnappers. We have not come to final agreement on this being the only characters that will appear during the opening scene but if anymore do they will be extras.

Tauren Pryce - Male, victim, unaware of the problem he is in
Sultan Adeboye - Victims friend
Daniel Balogun  - Male, kidnapper, quite aggressive and physical
Jide Allen - Male, kidnapper, quiet but psycho