Goodbye

Dear Moderator ,

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the development of my thriller project through my blog posts and videos.  I feel that I have grown as a Media Studies student through this platform and have truly grasped the potential that blogger has provided me with. I hope my blog has treated you well !

:) 

My final thriller opening

'The Movement'

Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My Preliminary task 'The Stuff'

My final thriller opening 'The Movement'

My response:

Evaluation 6

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

Evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Part 1



Part 2

Evaluation 1

Question 1 -In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before we began planning our thriller opening we decided to research into thriller films by watching existing commercial pieces and previous student work so we could grasp the common conventions found in thriller films and openings. 

 We did this as we could then review findings and create an effective narrative for our opening with successful aspects of verisimilitude.

To research the conventions I started by watching existing thrillers and testing various narratives. I did this as I decided to evaluate which conventions would be the most effective and how these could be devloped orginally.

From research  I found :

Thriller films include these typical conventions :

-Narrative based around a crime or act of deviance.

-Elements of mystery creating an enigma narrative

-Suspenseful ; increasing audience interest 

- Some type of abnormal plot or props to emphasize mentality of characters

- Realistic narrative with uneasy aspects

- Aspects of social realism with abstract twists

-Both protagonists and antagonists (set against each other making one triumphant)

-An insight into the character's personality and life (mise-en-scene)

-Flashback sequences to illustrate relevant past

An opening sequence has the following conventions :

-Includes titles; film title, main actors and crew

-A background to the narrative (when a feature film)

-Elements of enigma narrative

-Minimal character and plot development to keep audeince engaged

My team decided we would utilise some of these conventions  throughout the opening whilst ensuring we did not confuse conventions of a horror film or a trailer in my opening. 

Chloe and I then decided we wanted to incorpirate the following in our opening …

We believed these could be utilised effectively in a thriller opening after carrying out audience research. We chose these conventions in order to set the scene of the film in the first 3 minutes or so to engage our target audience.

It was appaerent these conventions would fit well with our protagonist and antagonist’s story , for example our choice to include a flashback sequence and mini title sequence enhances narrative and emphasises the signifcant aspects of the opening that would appear again if made into a feature film. The conventions are known to translate well on screen and are enjoyable to our audeince.

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To use these conventions in the correct way and effectively order them I worked using Todorov's Narrative theory as we could then ensure the audience were gripped from the opening. We planned on achieving this through enigma narrative and hints on what action would happen after the 'equillibrium' of the opening, whic would be when the action began ...

This is seen in most thriller openings which begin with equillibrium and start to invite the diruption into the end of the opening. This made our opening more interesting and unique as we took a common convention and developed it in an individual way for our own plot.

This is enhanced in our film opening by our chosen conventions and allows the audeince to understand the opening's order and action as they have experienced this layout when watching other thriller films. 

Re-editing session - 20th of January

Re-editing session - 20th of January

During this session we were focused on getting the last details of the edit perfect before upload. We began by watching the edit together before organising any faults we had picked up, this was then followed by gathering feedback from two unbiased sources. After asking them both for feedback we refilled areas which featured badly lit footage as we had already planned for this to be carried out earlier in the week so this was not unexpected.


We then improved title placement and appearances to ensure the title sequence was obviously separate from the rest of the plot in the opening. To proceed we watched the edit again as we wanted to watch how the developments had effected the scenes. Audio was played with to ensure everything was a comfortable volume before we added in the new reshoots and then re-watched the edits again. 

Moving on with the feedback we decided to play around with the title sequence aesthetic to ensure it was clear to the viewer that this was a separate area in the opening. We decided on a black and white filter on each shot before adding the last pieces of audio into the edit. And of course, we re-watched the edit once more as a team. Watching the edit allowed us to pick up on small faults and add in some extra layers of sound to create many layers of audio adding to our mine-en-scene. 

Finally we watched the edit separately to grasp our individual thoughts on the edit before deciding to get one last piece of feedback from an unbiased source. This allowed us to confirm the edit was ready for upload onto YouTube. Finally we uploaded the edit to Youtube and still insisted on re- watching this to enjoy what we had produced with a less critical eye. 

Re-editing session - 13th of January

Editing session - 13th of January

During this editing session we decided to begin editing our scenes which feature the character 'Larreh', the shots we took had to be reviewed as we tested multiple angles to see which would edit together to make the best sequence. After deciding which shots we liked the most we moved onto simple editing of adding the shots into the timeline after removing unnecessary aspects of each shot. 

During this time we found many unusable shots which we planned to make into a short video which would illustrate the struggles we faced when filming. After rewatching what we had already edited we decided to begin adding any necessary transitions and our new audio. The audio we chose needed to flucutate in volume which we did after researching the method to do this. We then moved around any of the 'Mirabelle' walking shots to ensure the journey of her getting to the office and the park were consitent and logical.

After successfully changing audio and dialogue volumes we decided to add required titles and then move onto planning which footage we will use on our title sequence. To create this we produced our titles and then added footage before playing around with the 'tape' flash which we decided to keep from our first edit. As we added audio the seuqence began to feel more complete and of a better quality. We decided to end the session with a rewatch of the edit and plan any modifications required in the next editing session. 

Re-editing Session - 11th of January

Re-editing Session - 11 th of January

To begin our second re-editing session we uploaded our next set of footage which includes all outdoor scenes of the characters 'Mirabelle' and 'Geraldine'. We watched the multiple shots and picked the best version of each shot to put into the 'flashback' segment of the opening. 

After editing the basic segments of this footage and placing into the sequence we decided to focus on transitions to ensure the footage was consitent and flowed. After multiple tests of placement and transitions to figure out whicha arrangement was the most effective to enhance our plot and attempt to keep the opening as concise yet effective as possible. 

We had anticipated audio to be an issue during this edit as the location was outdoors, because of this we researched possible methods for removing wind background noise but had ensured to set aside any time we would possibly need to re record the audio using a microphone. This was the most effective route and did not take too long to correct after meeting with the required actors. 

During this session we decided to get various opinions on the newly edited footage so grouped together some peers for an evaluative focus group. The most common comment was that the shots were interesting though the shots could be more consitent by scaling one of the dialogue shots. We took on this feedback and completed this which did make the overall segment much more effective. 

After planning we decided to incorpirate more shot types into this section than originally planned. During editing we could see this was a good descion as it was much more interesting using pan movements to track character movement than to have all static shots in the opening. After editing the outdoor scenes we decided to insert any walking shots of 'Mirabelle' as this set us up for the following editing sessions which would only need to add the other flash back segment and the title sequence. The sequence of Mirabelle walking incorporated titles which had been produced previously so we added these in as the last task of this session before reviwing new audio for the flashback segment.

These are some scenes we edited :

Rediting Session - 6th January

Editing Session - 6th of January

During our first editing session myself and Chloe decided to remove any footage that was not required for our re-edit. We then progresed by rough editing our first elements of re-shoots using basic adjustments to decided on an order of footage. Our first refilming session took place on 4th of January which left us with the footage of the 'Kathleen' character to edit. 

As we were using some shots that we already had the editing process was faster than we first thought. After deciding on a final storyboard it was evident to us that the editing would be a legthy process so to make this process much easier we decided to seperate all aspects into various folders which made the locating of files much quicker when putting the original shots into the timeline before adding any audio and transitions to enhance the basic shots.


After we had edited the footage in order we decided to continue by adding the relevant music and transitions for the start of our thriller opening. We did not come across any major difficulties when editing the first part of footage as it was the most simple section of the thriller opening that only needed to be put into a cronoligical order with some titles that were left in the sequence monitor from our previous edit.

We then decided to leave a large gap between footage as we had not yet added our next section of footage which needed to be placed after a section of 'flashback' footage. As before we had to edit remaining titles into the opening that involved the Kathleen character. We also decided to include video transitions into the footage as it made the shots blend together much more naturally. 

The editing during this session was fairly simple with little going wrong throughout because of this we had spare time to play around with fonts and title effects to ensure we would not have to stress about these aspects during our next editing session. Below are screenshots of the edited footage from this session :

Our Final Video

Reshoot Unusable footage

Below is a video with some of our reshooting sessions including unusable footage and outtakes :

Reshoot- 12th of January

Reshoot - 12th January 

For our last reshoot session we decided to use the location of the media studio as we required a dark room which does not appear to be a normal 'office' yet still appears to be a meeting room for the character of 'Larry' and his employees. The studio also allowed us to experiment with lighting and shadows which we had planned to explore. As we utilised the studio's space we decided to dress the set of the 'office' with some stationary supplies and other props to have a continous balance of mise-en scene.

The scenes contained dialogue and some action shots of Chloe's character who was asked to join her boss. The tripod was used again in this shoot to ensure shots were stable and did not seem of a low quality. The shot types were varied as we did not want the character of Larry to ever be seen fully in a shot to create an atmosphere of ambiguity. We decided to utilise various angles to show the differnece is status and illustrate the hierachy of the two characters played by Ben and Chloe.

The reshoot was the longest and hardest we have completed as it required many test shots and various cuts to ensure the shot-reverse-shot edit could be achieved with some individual effective shots to depict the conversation and action well. The lighting was tricky to decided as we knew we wanted Larry's character to be well lit as this would contrast against the black background of the studio portraying the contrast of character types in the opening.

The studio provided some obstacles that were easily overcome, an example is the black curtain which did not cover the entire green screen in some shots. To fix this we repositioned the set and curtain in test shots until the most successful set up was found and used. Our actor Ben was helpful in overcoming any mise-en-scene and representation issues as he provided his costume allowing us to have the 'suited' and 'scruffy professional' characters we required in the scene.

The Larry character was essential in the scene to create the desired narrative, Ben enhanced the role by providing the costume we had planned for him to wear in the office scene. The scene was effective as we had incorpirated many shots and an interesting scripted section of dialogue that allowed us to play around with the characters. Both actors were completely reliable and helpful in creating an effective series of shots. 

Reshoot- 10th of January

Reshoot - 10th January 

To continue our reshoots we decided to shoot the scenes of 'The Exchange' which involves our actress Sophie. We decided to make the character of 'Geraldine' appear more casual to the public as her occupation is an intelligence agent. To ensure this came across on screen we used 'Millie' her pet dog in the scene to give her character a more low-key disguise. We also decided to utilise a casual costume that would portray the character as inconspicious and an average member of the community visiting the park.

When filming these scenes we decided to utilise the park location with a bench giving the scene another prop which is relevant to the plot and enahnced framing and set dressing. As our narrative utilises the park location in the tape's journey montage we decided to film when lighting was similar in those shots. 

As before we used a tripod as this ensures the camera was steady giving a good quality shot. The placement of characters and props was effective throughout which prevented any negative aspects of the reshoot session however, weather proved a difficult point when watching the shoots back. (This was dealt with in post editing). We decided to illustrate the working realtionship of the character who do not explicitly share a friendship but are known to be companions in some form. The placement of the character and varied shots portrays the distance of the characters as they are not physically close and sit on opposite sides of the park bench demonstrating the lack of emotional connection.

The shots were mostly seamless to film but we still decided to complete test shots as we were experimenting with pans and tilts to find the best composition of shots. The reshooting session was only difficult in terms of audio in two shots which was an element we could not change, other than this myself and Chloe both found the session to be successful and a good learning curve.

Reshoot- 9th of January

Reshoot - 9th January 

During our shoot on the 9th of January we decided to film the scenes which involve Chloe's character walking in various location with the envelope which visualises the journey of the tape. When shooting we decided to use various areas of our local town with pavement shots and park shots. These shots were essential to include as it gives the audience an insight into the journey that Mirabelle went on in order to illustrate the importance of go-betweens in our opening sequence. The shots we took focus on the prop and Mirabelle's shoes to portray her professional attitude and desire to complete her task to the best of her ability.

We decided to utilise various shot types and angles which focus on Chloe's character walking, to achieve this we used a tripod as this ensured the shots were stable and of a good quality. We had attempted to film these shots on the previous evening but later found lighting and weather was a significant issue, we decided to postpone the filming to the following afternoon stratigically timing the filming session before sunset. The lighting was not overly bright or warm as this would suggest that the character has a positive reputation which is the opposite impression we desired the character to have.

Once we had performed various test shots we moved onto the proper filming we decided to utilise multiple park areas, an alley way and a footpath. Lighting was good as it was daylight and ensured our mise-en-scene was interesting with an integuing yet mundane aesthetic. The locations we used had been planned in our location posts seen earlier on in our blog, they worked successfully in translating our narrative to screen. We had planned the timing of filming well to ensure lighting enhanced our locations.

We decided to shoot a shot which would be part of the 'office' sequence which depicts Chloe's character making her way to the undisclosed location. We used a local carpark which has a well lit stairwell to create the shots and tested various positions of the tripod to get the best heights and angles. The stairwell is split into two sections which gave easy access when creating a small sequence of travelling up the stairs which translated well on screen.

Overall, the filming session was productive after struggling with lighting in the original reshoot for these scenes. The tripod was a successful resource which enhanced the filming and we did have to create multiple test shots to make sure we would not have to reshoot again. This was the only strain in the filming process for our second reshooting session. 

To Do list and Improvements

Below is our to do list for reshooting and improvements for our second edit :

Reshoot - 4th January

Reshoot - 4th January 

On our first day of re-shooting we decided to take on the shots which we had modified and improved from feedback which are set  in the 'house' location and include the protagonist of the opening. The re-shoot required the main props seen in the 'modified props' blog post. 

We decided to use the same camera and tripod that we used for our footage filmed for our first edit as this is the most effective set up along with a combination of natural and artificial lighting. As we had devised a to do list with improvements and a sufficient filming schedule we decided it would be effective to breakdown the storyboard into our filming schedule to ensure lighting was consistent in each location used in the opening. 

On this filming session we found a few issues regarding continuity as we had to ensure the layout of the bedroom location and hallway was the same in all shots even when the tripod had to be repositioned to ensure angles and framing was effective.

The aim of the session was to reshoot the footage we had planned to improve and modify, we ensured the modified storyboard and script were easy to follow and could influence interesting shots and framing. The lighting and layout problems were fixed easily allowing myself and Chloe to complete the filming of the first and last scenes after we had identified improvements to be made to our first draft.

The filming session took place in my own bedroom as this location was the most effective in terms of mise-en-scene. As the character of Kathleen is portrayed as an average teenage girl it was essential that we captured this in the opening. The costume of the character was as orginally planned to compliment the character's position in society. The reshoot allowed us to test various new angles and framing to achieve both an easy to follow and interesting narrative paired with unique visuals.

During the filming session we finished the first and last scene of the opening and ensured the to do list points for these scenes were ticked off to ensure editing could commence as quickly as possible before gathering more footage required. 

Modified Risk assessment

This post was created by Chloe , my team partner :

Here is our updated risk assessment that cosniders the risks in new locations and scenes soon to be recorded :

Modified Actors

This post was created by Chloe , my team partner :

These are the actors which will be involved in our film:

 Chloe - Chloe is a main character in the film who appears in multiple shots and is in possession of the tape once Ben gives it to her. She is clearly in some sort of business, however it is apparent that she is not as professional as Ben due to her messy outfit. She gives Sophie an evelope full of money in order to ask her to complete a job needed which clearly includes Megan.

 Ben is in a few shots in our film as he is the professional mystery businessman who is the first one in possession of the tape. He seems to be working with Chloe in order to deliver the tape to Megan who is seen as an innocent pure teenage girl. Ben is seen as very elegant and classy due to his neat suit and his posture which is very professional. The audience does not see his full face apart from his mouth, eyes and the close-up side of his face. This increases his mysterious personality and allows the audience to assume he is the antagonist. We thought that Ben would be a good person to use as he has history in acting due to his school drama talents and we also know he is reliable when we need him.

Megan is the protagonist in our film as she was in our first draft too. Her role has not changed as she is seen as a typical teenage girl due to her costume and actions. We decided that Megan would be a good feature in our film due to her being very reliable and how she acted really well in our previous draft. Due to her personality being witty and her being the correct age for the teenager she needs to be. She does not have any dialogue which makes her seem quite shy and anxious, especially when she sees the tape.


 Sophie is a new actor involved in our film. We decided to add a different character in our second draft to allow more dialogue and to let our film flow. Sophie - who plays Geraldine - is a very reliable person and her outfit choices fit in with our film. She is a good actor and we will ensure that she will be up to our standard. She is the one who is very money-orientated and is also working for Ben which makes her very mysterious and into crime. She is the go-between character and is relatable to the typical public due to her being casual instead of being dangerous or suspicious.

Modified Props

This post was created by Chloe , my team partner :

Modified - Props

 The bed is used in the film just like on the first draft. Megan (Kathleen) sits on the bed whilst listening to the tape which is significant due to the tape being the main prop in the film.


The envelope of money is also in our second draft. This is pulled out of my (Mirabell's) coat pocket before I hand it to Sophie (Geraldine). This is a convention of thriller films as money is heavily involved along with crime. As it is a large amount of money, it increases the danger and mystery that comes with it. It also allows the film to continue as it is the thing thatallows                                      Sophie(Geraldine) to complete her job.

 
The headphones are used in the film, just like on the first draft. These are a significant prop to the film as they allow Megan (Kathleen) to listen to the tape which is the most significant prop in our film. They allow the audience to understand that the tape is very important as well as the fact she is the protagonist therefore being the first seen to be listening to the tape at the end.

This is the walkman that is used so that Megan (Kathleen) can insert the tape inside. The walkman was used in our first draft and we will be using it the same way in our second draft.








This is the tape which is the most significant prop in our film as it is used in every shot and is clearly the reason for the mystery and crime apparent in the extract. It's bright colour allows the audience to identify it even from a long-shot and close-ups will be relevant. We used the tape in our first draft and will continue using it as we liked the idea of this being the main plot. It is also significant as every character is in possession of it in different scenes which makes it seem very valuable due to it never being left with nobody possessing it. It also links in with some sort of professional classy aspect due to Ben (Larreh) being the first one to handle it and he is extremely professional.