Wednesday 12 May 2010
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?(Judith)
Our thriller opening is made up with the typical conventions of thriller. It uses a deep and dark mysterious background music to create a frightening feeling for the audience to feel. We used a voyeuristic way of recording with the camera while using close ups and extreme close up to seem as if we are there. Our thriller opening uses a different approach without using any characters witch is a typical covention which is not used as much.
How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Michael)
Our thriller will appeal to everyone including people who are not regular cinemagoers and natural thriller lover over the age of 18 and should be certificated as 18. We believe this because of the story line of the thriller and what its based on. Our thriller is about a man getting revenge from the people who bullied him when he was younger. It would would have not have suitable content that people of a younger age should watch.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (Angel)
Our thriller will be a mainstream film, this is because it will bring forth as much exposure as possible to our film. This means are film will be in mainstream cinemas in order for it to generate as much profit as possible, putting the film in mainstream cinemas will also ensure that the film gets exposed well.
Who would be the audience for your media product? (Michael)
The target audience for our thriller will be the age 18 years and older. We are doing this because our thriller is has many scenes of violence which would not be suitable for people of a young age. Though are product appeals to an older audience we are targeting those who enjoy thrillers and the intensity of them.
How did you attract/address your audience?(Judith)
We attracted are audience mainly from the story line and the conventions that make a thriller. We believe that this story line will attract people because it seems mysterious and would include a lot of suspense. We wanted to confuse the audience with our title because it seems very neutral but when watching the thriller they will have a different view of it.
What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing the prouduct?(Micheal)
During the production of the thriller we used many types of technology and programmes to construct it. We used programmes such as final cut pro and a range of equipment. We were given a camcorder and a tripod to film shots, this wasnt a problem for my group because we were familiar we how to use camcorders which helped give a better effect on the product. To create the soundtrack we used a programme called Garage band which individually am familiar with outside college which helped us create something that has an affect on the final product and on films in general.
Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?(Judith, Micheal and Angel)
Looking back at our premilinary task we felt that we have learnt a lot through the progression of the full product. We have leanrt a range of new techniques for using using different software and cameras. As a group we wanted to create somthing different but has a high quality to it. To achieve this we treid using different techniques and software types to try and make our final presentation more noticeable. For example we utilsed different shot types and editing techniques to give our presntation look more professional. Wehn making the music for the sequence we tried to make a steady beat, we did not want our music to be dramatic because we wanted to create a type of music that complimented the sequence and makes the audience question what is going to happen.
Thursday 6 May 2010
Thursday 22 April 2010
Questionnaire
This questionaire was given out to colleagues in the college, we used this to find out the different types of thrillers people are interested in and what attracted them to it.
1. Which film genre do you prefer to watch most?
Action thriller
Adventure thriller
Comedy thriller
Horror thriller
spy thriller
Romance thriller
Western thriller
Sci-fi thriller
2. What attracts you to this type of thriller?
characters
confusion
mystery
suspense
3. What attracts you to thrillers?
story line
directors
adverts
intensity
4. How important is an enigma or a mystery to the opening of a thriller?
very important
important
not so important
not important
5. In the opening of a thriller do you think the plot should be revealed or left unknown?
revealed
left alone
6. What do you think the most important element to a thriller is?
music
plot
acting
special effects
7. In which way do you think thriller should open?
present time
flash forward
flash back
everyday life
8. What do you think makes a thriller tense?
music
acting
camera angles
setting
9. How important is dialogue to a thriller ?
very important
important
not so important
not important
Comparing Se7en and Panic Room
The difference between the opening of Se7en and panic room is that the panic room is a more relaxed and simple opening whereas the opening of Se7en is more tense and makes our brains work more to find out that is going on.
The opening of Se7en is set in a dark environment and it is focused on one person but in panic room it is focused on the buildings and on two people at the end.
A variety of shots are taking in the opening of Se7en to make a bit more tense and to make us think what will happen next and what is going on. panic doesn't take that many and there not as fast as the ones in Se7en making the opening more relaxed and easy to understand. Se7en uses close ups and medium close ups to to show the persons face with detail and to show what he is doing with detail. it also shows his hand and what happened to it.
Se7en has used these shots because the opening is focused on a subject (the person) and the things he is doing whereas in the panic room there is no main focus nothing is being shown other than the credits and the building.
Both openings are made by the same director. He has made them very different from one another because they are based on different things and he want’s to create a different effect in both of them. He wanted to try and make the tense and mysterious effect with Se7en and he was very successful in doing that because the opening makes the audience think a lot about what's going on. He wanted to bring the more calm side when he made panic room he wanted to show us the film would be set in the busy streets of New York, after the camera pans down and we see two women walking one in a hurry and one just following.
The music used in Se7en is just a kick and a synth hi-hat most of the other sounds are non diegetic these sounds are used to create the atmosphere of mystery it also adds tension. The music in panic room is a string quartet which increases in tempo during the sequence and then it goes back to normal. This is done to create the atmosphere of tension like a heart beat to show something is going on and its making someone's heart race.
Opening Sequence Analysis of Sev7n
Camera Shot/Angle/Movement
The opening sequence starts with a close up of a book and in the background a hand turning the page, we cannot really see the hand properly since it is blurry in the background. we the see a range of shots of the person doing things with the book and writing things in the book. this is done so we cannot see who is turning the book it is meant to be a mystery that maybe we will find out later on in the film
Sound
The music being played is very simple its just a kick and a synth hi hat sound playing but as the opening sequence continues a series of additional sound effects are added making the music different and strange linking to what the man is doing in the sequence the use of diegetic sounds makes it more realistic and
Editing
The editing in the opening sequence was done quite well and its effective. It brought the effect that the movie would contain something weird it the flashing light effect was used abstract images were also used to make us see images that were hidden. it makes the audience almost know what the film will be about
Characters
We do not see the the character in the opening sequence this leaves the audience in mystery. we see the deformed hands of someone we dont see whether the person with the deformed hand is male or female but its more likey to be male this just adds to making the audience guess and wonder what is going to happen and what is going on
Locations
We do not see the location but i personally think the person has used an abandoned warehouse and used it for his little den of weirdness. The fact that we do not know where he is makes us wonder to the persons whereabouts.
Narrative/Plot
If we look at what the person is doing is not what normal people would be doing he is cutting parts of his skin on his finger off with a blade his also doing weird things with the book by highlighting things with a dark pen, we can tell from this the narrative is going to be. I think it will be something like the man is trying to kill someone or looking for people to kill for doing something to him or his family in the past.
Themes
There are quite a lot of themes in the opening sequence. we see the themes mystery we also see the aspect of blood. when the person is getting the photo out of the red ink we can relate this to blood.
Visual Style
The opening sequence to seven is very unique. It has been made smartly by the producers of the film. It makes the audience look deep down into their thoughts to think about what is going on. It also leaves them questioning themselves and there is only one way to answer their questions which is by watching the actual film, by just watching the opening sequence they should have already discovered what genre it will be and if they like it they should watch it.
Genre
We have not been told what the genre is in the opening sequence but it is easy to have a guess at what it could be. using all the information we have found out we can tell it will be a thriller or a horror.
Monday 19 April 2010
Opening Sequence Analysis Of Panic Room
Camera Shot/Angle/Movement
The camera is very steady and takes various shots of different places in New York. This is used to show us that the film will be based in new york and its going to be a very busy film since New York is also busy. The camera pans in many of these shots to get the credits in the center of the screen.
Sound
The music being played is very simple. It is a string quartet playing and it seems a bit relaxing at first but then the tic toc sound of a clock is played and it makes the tempo a bit faster meaning tension is building or something dodgey is going happen. When this change in music happens the strings play something different they play more of a jumpy rhythm towards the end the strings return to what was played at first but with the continuous ticking of the clock this makes us feel weary relief meaning something may still happen
Editing
The editing of this opening sequence is done well but not quite effective. It places the credits in the middle of the buildings and a fade in and out is used in the first two shots.
Characters
We see the characters at the very end of this opening sequence. We see a woman walking along with another woman with the older woman in a bit of a rush. This shows the older woman works and she is in a rush to get to work since she is late, this makes us wonder to weather the woman is organized and manages her time well. The older woman is in her mid 30s or early 40s and the younger one seems like she is 18-20.
Locations
The location of the opening sequence is in the busy streets of New York. This just shows that the film may be very busy and something is always happening in contrast to the where its set.
Narrative/Plot
We do not really get a narrative/plot because nothing is being shown only the busy streets of New York and 2 women walking with each other one is in a rush and one is rushing trying to catch up they could be friends, relatives, lovers or parent and child.
Themes
There are no real themes to this opening sequence because it does not really show anything that leads on to anything. All it shows is the location and two women walking it is very hard to get a theme from this so we look at the title and we get a feel of mystery because the title ‘panic room’ sounds very mysterious.
Visual Style
The opening sequence to panic room is very common in many films these days, maybe because the producers do not want to let the audience into what happens to early, they may want the audience to watch the movie to find out what its all about instead of just watching the opening sequence knowing what happens and not watching the rest of the movie. This would lose profit on the movie.
Genre
We have not been told what the genre is in the opening sequence, it is very hard in this instance to guess what genre this film is.