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

   Our group decided that we wanted a different feel when we were planning to shoot our thriller films, the look we were going for was cinematic and sleek. We aimed to achieve this by using two DSLR camera's (Nikon D3100 & Canon 550D) that recorded in 1080p HD format. The use of these DSLR's allowed me to experiment and practice with the camera angles and shot types that I had learned during research which helped develop my visual eye for different scenes, and give me more of an insight in to the different perspectives a scene could be captured from. 


   In addition, the benefits of using the DSLR cameras were that as well as video, they also take stills. This allowed us to go and photograph the locations and different angles we were considering using before the shoot took place, therefore, giving us a better idea of what did and didn't work visually. One of the major benefits of using DSLR's was that we could watch the footage straight back and decide if we needed any more takes, angles, etc. Also, the footage that was recorded could easily be placed on to a computer/laptop and uploaded on to blogs to get teacher feedback. Furthermore, the specific advantage of using DSLR's was that the focus could be manually adjusted in order to create different focal points. This gave our footage contrasting depth's of field that helped give us the cinematic look we were aiming for.

Example of using manual focus in order to create a
shallow depth of field. 

   
   However, there were a few mistakes we made when filming which allowed us to further understand our cameras and take shooting in to more consideration. Firstly, when shooting on location in the dark car park we didn't take into consideration the right ISO settings, which determine how much light is let in to the camera. Therefore, one of our shots is quite dark and is hard to make out the action. Secondly, we shot with two DSLR's in the same 1080p setting. However, we forget to take in to account the shutter speed and therefore some footage was shot in 24 fps, and the other lot in 25 fps. Finally, the in built microphone on the Nikon D3100 was able to pick up diegetic sound brilliantly, but, when shooting outside wind dominated the sound and made it quite hard to hear some of the ambient sound within the mise-en-scene. Luckily, these were all jobs that could be saved or made less noticeable in the edit.
   In addition, for some of our shots we mounted our cameras to tripods. This type of equipment helped us explore a wide variety of angles whilst being able to keep the camera steady and therefore reduce shakiness within the shot. It also allowed us to create shots that would have been very difficult to capture if we were operating hand-held, for example, the panning shot of the van entering the car park. 

   Adobe Premiere was my initial choice of software to edit my thriller on as I had a small experience in using it before for a previous task. Unfortunately, I was unable to use this software as it didn't have it available to me on my laptop and therefore I used a program called iMovie, of which, I had no previous experience in. However, once I begun playing around with the software I began to quickly grasp the basic functions and effects. One function that I found very useful and managed to become more detailed in after practicing was the precise trimming. This is as it allowed me to cut and match clips up to the millisecond in order to create a consistently fluid motion between shots that don't include transitions, therefore, keeping the action intact and not "jumpy" in any way. 

For example, the matching up of these shots had to be done using
the precise editing tool. This is as Sol only had his hand on the
railing for a small fraction of time.

The settings for correction and grading
that I used for most shots.

   Furthermore, a setting that I had never been introduced to before on a video editing software was the ability to correct the actual colours and brightness of the footage itself. This came as a huge help when editing the thriller opening as it allowed me to enhance shots that weren't brilliant visually and also adjust colours and saturation in order to give the mise-en-scene a gritty feel. When I discovered this setting, I wasn't overly confident with it as I had no idea of what would look effective, therefore, I had to spend some time testing what kinds of looks I could go for and make my mind up depending on what best suited the planning, style and characters. Doing this allowed my skills to develop greatly, this is as I now have a good idea of what would work best not only for our particular thriller opening but other genres and styles of films, therefore, making the skill I have learnt applicable to other media projects that I may produce.

A screenshot of footage before and after colour correction.

 

For example, this
screenshot shows three
channels of sound.
(Soundtrack, sting & diegetic)
The waves indicate the loudness
in each part of the shot.

   Thirdly, iMovie allowed me to become more confident not only in video editing, but also sound editing. This is as in previous pieces of media that I have created I have either not worried about the sound, or only gone as advanced as to completely take the sound out and replace it with a soundtrack. However, within our thriller opening we needed to maintain a balance of non-diegetic (soundtrack, sting) and diegetic sound (footsteps, car engine, etc). Therefore, I was able to learn the skill of fading out wild diegetic sound (i.e. lift speaker system) when not needed and keeping in parts in order to maintain a balance that was able to sound more professional. The reason that this skill was necessary to develop was due to the point I was explaining earlier, whereby, wind was dominating the recorded sound. 

   Once I had finished editing the clips together I began to consider which transitions and titles to use, also considering where they would be appropriate within the opening. I decided that I wanted hard cuts throughout my film to keep the pace of the action flowing well and therefore instead of fading in and out from black I would just cut quickly. For example, the quick cut to black at the end allowed me to emphasise the pure power and force of the boot striking down in the lift. However, I used transitions for the sound in order to build in and out of suspense at climatic moments within the opening. For example, I faded in the sting just before the boot slams down in the elevator and then slowly faded out the soundtrack as I cut to black at the end. I learnt that this function could help me increase and decrease tension via sound but also keep action fluid within the shot transitions. 
   Furthermore, I considered which titles to use and how to animate them. This was the first time I had used the title function in iMovie and therefore I to do a various amount of exploring before I came to the correct conclusion of placement, animation and font. Although iMovie offered a wide range of different fonts, I decided that none of them conveyed the correct style of the film. Therefore, I used a website called Dafont in order to research and download a font that would best reflect the action and menace, this website holds a great database of different font types and it's easy to find fonts using specific categories and key words. After concluding which font I would use, I turned to the animation of the first title. iMovie had many presets of different animations and therefore it was easy to find the right one very quickly. 

For example, a teacher's comment on a research
post that I was able to take in and furthermore, strengthen
my work.

   When introduced to Blogger I had no previous experience of using a blog in order to portray my work or even for my own leisure and therefore, I found the idea of using one for the majority of my coursework quite daunting. However, once I had been educated by my teacher about how to use one I became a lot more comfortable with posting online and now find it to be a very efficient and easy way of portraying my work and getting feedback. This is as it takes out the need to file masses of notes and wait till I can see the teacher to give them a piece of work, as everything is organised online with labels and once I have created a post the teacher is notified and can review the work where ever they have internet access. Additionally, using a blog allows me to better enforce and back up the points I make with evidence as I can easily embed images, videos, Prezis, etc. This better illustrates to the teacher my thoughts and insights in to a certain piece of research or planning, which, in turn strengthens my work. 

   My primary source of obtaining and viewing videos was a website called YouTube. This website contains a huge database of videos and therefore allowed me to access a wide variety of clips from thrillers that all contained different styles of building tension or grasping audience. Therefore, allowing me grow my knowledge of techniques that could be used within our thriller opening. Furthermore, YouTube also allowed to me to embed clips to my blog, which was brilliant in demonstrating the points made in my research and supplying a sufficient visual aid when writing my posts.

  For example, I was able to embed this clip when researching "13 Tzameti" in order to better reinforce my points.

   When analysing shots for the Thriller research section, I occasionally used software such as Microsoft Powerpoint and Prezi as both programs allowed me to layout my shots and annotate them in a neat and well formed way. Although I was well aquatinted with Powerpoint due to use of it frequently in previous education, I lacked knowledge on how to use Prezi as it was a new software that I hadn't been introduced to before and therefore it took some time getting used to. However, after becoming more familiar with Prezi it seemed like a much efficient program to use as not only could I embed images, but also video clips in to my presentation. Though, Powerpoint is a much more simple program and therefore I primarily used it when only compiling and annotating still images as it could be done with ease. A website called Scribd became particularly useful when I needed to upload and embed the finished powerpoint to my blog, this is as I was able to quickly upload the powerpoint and find a link for embedding with simple controls, therefore, making the insertion of a presentation on my blog easy.
  

For example, a Prezi that I made into research of the 'Femme Fatale', using embedded stills and videos.

As you can see, from the mobile I was using
it is simple and easy to call others. 

   When our group were out shooting our film, we needed to ensure that we were at location at the right time and, in the right part of the location. Therefore, we we kept in to contact using our mobile phones, this allowed us to ring or text each other if we were going to be late or didn't specifically know where we were going. The main benefit of communicating with our mobile phones was that it saved time when we were planned to be shooting, this is due to the easy function of contacting another group member when needed. For example, one of the actors in our thriller opening had to travel from a further distance and wasn't familiar with the area, therefore, we were able to send her directions via text and she was able to notify us when she had arrived.   

    Furthermore, when filming our thriller opening we needed to store our footage on an SD card, which took the videos straight away. The benefits of using this type of memory card was that it was small and therefore very portable, also, it was capable of holding large amounts of memory for it's size. For example, me and another group member had one 8gb and 16gb card between us, and we didn't end up using all the memory. Another major benefit of the SD card was its compatibility, this is as it could easily be plugged into our computers/laptops due to the available ports and therefore footage could be imported straight away.  

For example, using specific audience ratings I
was able to identify why the audience who
rated the film most highly enjoyed
"A Clockwork Orange".

    A website that was very useful when researching thriller films and audience was IMDB, standing for the Internet Movie Database. This is as the website contained in-depth data about a huge variety of films, data such as user reviews, viewer ratings (and their age group), genre, year of release, cast and crew helped me a great deal when researching as most, if not all the information that I needed was available to me. Additionally, the user reviews were brilliant for obtaining quotes that reflected my opinion of the film and also linking other films that were similar. A huge benefit of IMDB is that via viewer ratings it is easy to determine the demographic of the film, therefore, allowing me to further explore why this particular audience would have enjoyed the film, which in turn, strengthens the posts that I make. In addition, the ratings allowed me to find which particular films the target audience for our thriller may enjoy and therefore our group were able to ensure we were targeting correctly.   

   
   In terms of researching soundtracks, I used sites such as Freesound, Incompetech and Audio Network. These websites contained a wide variety of different audio files that were well suited to the thriller genre. However, our group primarily used Audio Network in order to find our thriller soundtrack. This is as we believed it contained the most professional sounding audio and in comparison to Freesound and Incompetech it had a wider array of soundtracks available. The benefits of using these websites were that soundtracks could be downloaded with ease and the fact that all the tracks were unlicensed meant that there was no charge for downloading. Additionally, there was an ability to download different mixes of soundtracks and therefore if for example, the piano in a track sounded too upbeat,  there was the option of downloading a mix without it.

http://www.audionetwork.com/production-music/for-whom-the-bell-tolls-3_61166.aspx

For example, the link to our soundtrack, of which, was a mix of the original. 

Character Profile - John

Character Name: John
Actor Name: Sol Goss
Character Type: Antagonist

John is an adolescent who has been caught up in dodgy dealings with an organisation. He is simply the messenger; his only purpose being to deliver the black bag that contains unknown items to an ambiguous young woman that goes by the name of Hanna. The bag that John wears acts an enigma, creating a sense of mystery amongst the audience as the events that take place within the opening revolve around the contents of the bag.

John is the antagonist as the audience follow him through the labyrinth of the deserted car park; therefore the audience are able to begin to engage with the character. John appears confident but is also portrayed as vulnerable due to the inexperience of being in this kind of situation as well as being the youngest out of the three characters. His vulnerability can be shown by the insignificance he poses when compared to the massive structure of the car park, being a claustrophobic location and a generic convention it also creates the impression that the character is going into a place that he may well never come back out of. The body language that John shows could be interpreted to connote that he is street smart and is independent, although his isolation adds to the vulnerability.

When thinking about the character of John we looked at several British Dramas that depicted the lives of youths living in similar locations to that of Anglia Square. We found that the character of 'Sam' from 'KiDULTHOOD' and 'AdULTHOOD' had a similar personality and appearance to John. This is because he does what he can (including crime, which applies directly to John as he is involved in shady dealings) in order to make a name for himself and to get enough money to live comfortably, but in doing so gets himself into trouble and realises that he is way in over his head. The UK TV drama Top Boy was also another link for John, as each of the characters are dressed similarly to John. Some of the characters also end up in trouble with higher up organisations/gangs and have to fight their way out of trouble, this could be linked with the trouble that John ends up in with the larger powers of Bill and whoever Hanna is linked to.

'Sam' from "Kidulthood" and "AdULTHOOD", shown wearing a similar hoody to John"

An image from "Top Boy"

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

Anglia Square, Car Park

Stereotypical London council
estate

 Our thriller opening, Transit, aims to target a predominantly male audience aged between 16-21 years old. Firstly, the location used in our thriller film is aimed to be identifiable with our particular demographic. For example, it features very rundown, dirty, densely populated urban housing estates buildings. This is therefore identifiable amongst the target audience as buildings in such a state as the ones in Transit are common amongst council estates, of which, approximately 30% of the UK's population live within, therefore making it likely that a large amount of the demographic also live in similar housing. In addition, the action is connoted by the particular location as council estates have a reputation for being riddled with anti-social or dodgy behaviour. This further poses another recognisable aspect of our thriller to our demographic as the audience should identify with this fact and associate the location and action to similar situations, of which, they may have heard about or experienced themselves (However, probably not to the same magnitude). Furthermore, making Transit seem more appealing.

Character from the TV drama, "Top Boy".

John, wearing very similar clothing to those
in "Top Boy"

   Secondly, the characters of John and Hanna are in the same age range as the demographic we are aiming for which gives a first basis of identification with characters. Furthermore, John is a 17 year old boy, who would be considered in our society to be an ethnic minority, his clothes are pretty much all black apart from his white t-shirt. He wears his hood up and aims to look intimidating. The fact that John is from an ethnic background widens our audience from a primarily caucasian background to a further array of different races. Jon could be interpreted as a few different characters which are both likely to relate to the demographic. Firstly, Jon could be seen as the victim as his antagonist is most likely to be Bill, the older white man. This idea flips the stereotype, whereby, usually the ethnic minority portrayed as "hoodie" usually evokes the most destruction, violence and menace. For example, the London Riots, "Kidulthood", "Top Boy". However, instead it's the older white man that is seen as the threatening and violent character. This assumption may allow the demographic to relate to our film as the media has put ethnic minorities/"hoodies" under a lot of scrutiny, exclaiming that they are threatening and destructive individuals. Whereby, one interpretation of our film would be that this type of individual is the victim and therefore it allows the demographic to identify with the feeling that everyone is fearful/discriminative of them when in actual fact they are the victims, thus making the making the film more captivating. 
   On the other hand, John's slightly unresponsive and hardened reaction to finding the dead body of Hanna could be a portrayal of the typical stereotype taken to a new level. For example, at London court recently a man was stabbed by a bunch of youths with their hoods up. The link between this news story and John is a suggestion that these individuals have no empathetic traits, in the way that they can commit or witness a horrible act and not feel any sorrow or remorse. This is supported by research into psychopathy and it's relation to deviant crimes, e.g."Lack of empathy and lack of remorse, are often seen in offenders of deviant crimes.  Lacking empathy, offenders are able to view their victims as objects, to use and throw away as they please, not unlike a piece of garbage.  By viewing the victim in this manner, offenders also seem to lack remorse for their actions, which protects them from feeling guilt", this extract is sourced from http://www.deviantcrimes.com/psychopathy.htm .
   This idea may be identifiable with the demographic as they may feel threatened by this particular antagonist in reality and therefore it could create more of a realistic character profile for John.


This video indicates how "hoodies" are seen as the victim in some cases.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/01/man-stabbed-london-court
Where as, this particular new article reinforces the extreme stereotype.

   Additionally, Hanna is an 18 year old girl of a caucasian ethnicity who's dress code challenges the stereotypical convention of the femme fatale. This is as she doesn't wear revealing clothing, has her hair short and doesn't look scared given the rather isolated situation. The name of the character was taken from the thriller "Hanna", this is as the main character in "Hanna" is a 16 year old girl raised to be an assassin in order to take care of herself. Therefore, being a rather hardened individual. Our character of Hanna poses as a strong female, which creates a role model for women as it seems as if Hanna is in charge and dictating what John needs to do, one interpretation could be that Hanna isn't actually dead at the end and she was only luring John to the hands of Bill. This therefore, could widen our demographic to appeal and identify with a female audience as well as male. Furthermore, Hanna's good physical stature and looks may also act as a sex appeal for male audiences.

User ratings for "Drive".

   Thirdly, our demographic should identify with the soundtrack we have chosen for our film as it uses low pulsations as well as fast ticking noises in order to create tension leading up to a climatic moment in the opening. The soundtrack resembles music from films such as "Drive" or "Snatch" in terms of tempo and specific beat patterns, this may pose as a relatable aspect to the male demographic as it is alike in the majority of films that they are likely to be interested in. For example, a scene in the thriller "Drive" features a getaway scene to a similar soundtrack and once investigating who rated the film most highly on IMDB I found that it was males under 18,  which is closely followed by males 18-29 years old.

   

User ratings for "Kidulthood"

    I believe that our demographic of 16-21year old males would likely enjoy other TV and Film such as "Kidulthood", "Top Boy", "Misfits", "This is England 86'", "Drive" and "Snatch". Purely because the all contain similar locations, action, character, themes and soundtrack to our thriller production. For example, the males under 18 demographic rated the film "Kidulthood" most highly. 

Thriller - Final Cut

Transit - Final Cut

Transit - Rough Cut

I am very pleased with the close-ups that we captured in order to establish the action. For example, when Jon is coming coming up the stairs to meet Hanna (0:31)/(0:43). This is as when they are cut to from other wider shots the pace and involvement within the action increases. Therefore, creating a more tense build up. Additionally, I am very satisfied with a close-up at (0:45), the reason being that, it's utilises noir lighting  much like films I have researched such as "A Clockwork Orange" and "13 Tzameti". Also, I feel the tracking shot at (1:01) turned out very well, this is as I believe it reflects the shot from "Misfits" (posted below) that it was influenced by .



Although I was overall quite pleased with the edit, I believe there are quite a few improvements that can be made/ should've been considered before editing. For example, the shot at (1:12) seems too dark and it's rather hard to make out the action, however, brightening the clip would most likely reduce the quality of the shot significantly. In addition, although the foot coming down in the lift is quite suspenseful I don't feel as if I have utilised the soundtrack/sound to the further make this action menacing. In order to improve this, I could add a sting when the foot comes down to show that it is an ultimate moment or perhaps adjust the original soundtrack so the boot hits the floor on a pulsing beat.

Naming our Thriller opening

Transit:

Whilst planning our thriller opening we thought deeply about how best to sum up and relate our plot line, key elements and actions in attempt to create a suitable title for our opening. The general idea was that we should go for a name that best represented the location, however, we soon decided that this was not as applicable as first thought. Therefore, we determined that the title should relate directly to the action and the main components of this, and so we chose the name "Transit". Transit defines the process of carrying people, goods or materials from one place to another, of which, connotes the actions portrayed within our plot line. This is as Jon is transporting an unknown item to Hanna, whilst Bill may potentially be hoping to transport the item Jon carry's to somewhere else once obtained. However, Bill's motives for the item are not revealed within our story but only speculated. 

Additionally, the Transit is a model of van produced by Ford, this type of van is similar to the one Bill is driving within our opening and therefore the title further promotes our generic convention of the white van. 

A Ford Transit van.

A Renault Trafic van
(The vehicle we are using in our opening)

Mood board for our thriller opening (Transit)