Thursday, 13 March 2014

AS Evaluation-Q5

How did you attract/address your audience?


In order to attract the needed audience, one had cunningly decided tactics, that were simmilar to the very top famous thrillers. HOwever, I awso carried out a survey in order to find out the most appropriate Ideas to implement in my thriller and how much my audience would like to see it. For now, from observing, the most used convections by the thrillers. An example would be overuse of blood and vast viewing of iconography such as knives in order to kill the victim. Usually in the victim-killer scene, the camera would change into a POV in order to further gross out their audience and confuse them with the situation due to the handheld camera. This gives the audience the chance to experience what a killer could do.

I created some primary research via questionnairs what my audience would want to have in it`s thriller and whether I will need to address certain ideas in order to make  the story appeal even further to them. For example, in my questionnaire I asked questions such as 'what would be the appropriate age for the  characters?’ where 40% answered that they would film a thriller with a woman between her 20`s and 30`s. This meant that I could carry on with my idea as I had a simmilar oppinion for the storyline.

Another bennefit which I will recieve about my, product is that it will have a lot of my desired audience`s prefferences, meaning that the distribution of the film will be even more easy. Some of my ideas had clashe with tried techniques by thriller films, such as: Scream, Taken (Arguably),  The Shining and Jaws. And as these films are famous for their appropriately effective use of the convections, I can decide on their effectiveness wether to use them or not. In order to do that, one had to check the proffits and budgets from these boxoffice thrillers (All of them being in the Top100 Boxoffice Thriller list) from websites such as IMDB.

By gathering all of this primary and secondary data, one aided himself with aideas that might be licked by both his audience and the producers of the thriller (My colleagues). Setting up a target therefore would be easier for all of us as we did not wonder on the steps that followed.

Final thriller opening sequence

13/3/14
Final thriller opening sequence
Vasil NIkolov

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Fn_zeeia0


Tuesday, 11 March 2014

AS Evaluation-Q6

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


For the production of the opening sequence, we used several technologies. The first, to which we were introduced, was Blogger. When we asked why we should use Blogger, our teachers told us that that way they can find and more easily mark our work. In the beginning it was a bit tricky to remember what buttons we had to use in order to upload a picture or video from “You tube”. However, after the first two lessons, it all started to make sense. 

It was not really Blogger that made it difficult, but using a Mac. For 13 years I have been thought how to use a Windows operational system and never a Mac (Because Macs were counted as unacceptable software for the Bulgarian citizen. After a couple of hours of practice on the Macs at an Apple store, I remembered how to properly use a Mac (Even though I still prefer and use a Windows). 

The second type of technology we were introduced to was the camera and tripod. We had a special, one hour lesson in which we were taught how to use them. The camera was easy to use. I personally loved using it because of its rugged simplicity (Just like the VW Beetle).  The tripod was even better as it had a handle which when rotated anti/clockwise, changed the height of the camera. It reminded me of a submarine periscope. The editing software we used was called Final Cut Pro X. It was a very simple and yet effective software to use. I can prove this by telling that the last two days of editing the rough cut were done by me as George (Our Chief Editor) was missing. At the time Danni was sick so it was really up to me to make sure that the rough cut is completed. So I asked my teacher to tell me the main buttons and then I started to bring life to our masterpiece. The same software was used by George to create the credits for the opening sequence. I personally found editing quite fun, however my biggest weakness with it was when we had to change the light of two shots using the software. It was a nightmare person who had edited them previously had accidentally overdone the decreasing of light. The way I overcame that problem was by asking miss where the light options were. And the software used for this evaluation is Microsoft Word. Some of my colleagues used the Word on the Macs to type up their evaluations, however I refused to type it on a Mac as their layout is with a lot of shortcuts and small drawings that make no sense what they are supposed to look like. My biggest weakness would probably be holding the camera straight or without moving as my hands shake a lot. This is why when the tripod was of no aid, either me or George had to become the tripod and rotate the camera.  The hardest angle that we had to film was probably the panning angle for the Passat passing by. The reason why it was hard was because we had still not asked for a tripod or a camera. I had to use the family photo camera which had a video option but made my life hard with the focusing as it to be focused manually and it could be done only once before the filming was done. The way we came over that problem was by choosing a close zoom, so from a close distance the car will be in focused when passing. The area in which I was heavily involved with editing was when the killer had arrived and went to the kitchen to when the husband grabs the keys and opens the door, only to find the killer. During those parts, I was heavily involved with the filming and editing of the film as my colleagues were busy with family or school events. Nevertheless a completed Rought Cut was presented to the class with both me and George to talk about.

Danni had made a presentation in which we presented our film and then what the narrative is and what the audience might expect. From the gathered results that were given by our colleagues, we discovered what we need to improve upon. George courageously took the task of re-filming some scenes. However he was so eager that he re-filmed the entire opening credits. Twas not a great loss as we had to improve the scenes where there were more than two actors, acting as one character for one scene.


For our complete cut, we made sure that all of our crew was together and more camera styles were used as the ones that we used were a bit repetitive. Another thing that we improved is the use of the needed characters with just one actor per character. In one of the scenes, the main character is represented by one of the other actors as the actor that was in the role of the main character was unable on that day. This is why in future filming, we will make a better filming schedule as our original was with great gaps where there was nights in which either half of the cast or filming crew could not arrive. Two people will be taught to use the editing software in order to save time and worries regarding deadlines. Another thing that we might change is the Time when we film our thriller. When we were filming, we had very little time to muddle about, so we had to start filming the moment we got to my place rather than go and think what we should film first. The reason was that we filmed during the winter period so it was getting dark quicker than we expected it to. In some scenes (mainly the car scenes) torches had to be used so the filming crew could see what they have to press.

Thursday, 20 February 2014

AS Evaluation-Q3

AS Evaluation-Q7

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



Finally comes my favourite moment, which is when we had to do our preliminary task. The purpose of the preliminary task was to get to know how our equipment worked and how we could use it. Our task was to create a short piece of film in which there are several camera angles used and there is conversation between two characters. 

From the task we learned that Danni was shy to be filmed. Also she was looking sometimes clueless towards the camera, which shows that she had no idea what we were playing. This means that she needed to concentrate on her lines and look towards the other actor, in order to make the film story look more realistic.
We also learned that George was good at editing and all of us were good at using the camera. We made a mini conclusion that I was good at creating a storyline and sort of acting
. There were points where the lighting did interfere with the behaviour of the characters. So we concluded that we must make sure that the lighting is adjusted correctly, otherwise, we would not look like a professional production and it would not make the thriller look successful or realistic.

Another problem which we faced was the sound insulation as voices from the library could be heard. From That we have learned that in order to make a more realistic thriller clip, we must make sure that the sound is well insulated in order for the audience not to be able to bear with deteriorated sound. 

Also following these mistakes, another was found by the sudden and probably accidental movement of the camera. the high angle camera angle had moved swiftly to the left and then to the right which is not acceptable for a film out of any genre. We learned that we must make sure that the camera is not moving when it is filming a steady shot of a certain scenario/scene.

A part from that, I learned that under all circumstances, one must create a plan before filming (A script would be quite the bit). 

AS Evaluation-Q2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


Our first character is called Stacey. She is 25 and arrives from the former republic of Ygoslavia. Stacey is an everyday housewife. She spends every day looking after the home. Her main tasks involve cleaning the house, washing and cooking, nice homemade meals (which we discover in the opening scene). This way, the audience can relate to her and develop a relationship with her. Unlike our audience, Stacey doesn't have any friends due to bad college years and her family consists of just her husband (Dave) and their two sons. Stacey's character appeals to the target audience as she uses very basic makeup and her hair is tied, showing a sense of vulnerability yet confidence so teenage females can learn that it's okay to look how you do. This makes Stacey approachable to the audience. By showing to the audience that she is a weak character, the audience would want to reach out and help her as she has had a lot of miss fortunes in her life.

The second Character is called Dave. He is 25 years old and comes from the Czech Republic.  Dave works as a solicitor. He is on a case as a defendant for a victim against a well-known criminal, who is dangerous and ready to stop anyone from going to prison. Dave is happily married with his wife; Stacey. They have two sons and a nice house. Dave became a solicitor because although Christian, he believed in the aspect of karma. Dave has grown up with both parents. He has two older brothers who are twins, and one younger sister. He is also a family guy. Dave would appeal to the audience, as he is represented as a good soul who is willing to help and the fact that he is a solicitor allows the audience to trust him because of his authority and would therefore hold respect for him. The use of his outfit where he will be wearing a smart suit, along with a brief case show's that he is a sophisticated character and that he is a bit conservative. It is important to pursuade the idea that his character is strong to the audience as it will give a strong sense of security for the audience, therefore allowing him to appeal to the audience. Also the difference in clothing between him and Stacey shows the comparisons of a strong character and a weak character.

And finally, our killer. Although my group dismisses the idea of him having a name, I did give him a name and I will always call him Jerald. In the posters and trailers he will never have the name written but I will call him as I find it funny. He is British, age is unknown. This killer is currently facing a trial in court for attempt of man slaughter. he has no friends nor family. As a young boy growing up, he was around a lot of nasty areas where he saw crime take place right in front of him. He witnessed his mother getting aggressively stabbed when he was 11. Since then he hadn't been the same, he had studied hard at school until he was 16 and then left. At this job, he was treated with no respect. The killer may not appeal to the majority of the audience. This is because this character is seen as violent and morally wrong in his belief. However, taking this attitude on the character works because in order for a successful thriller, we need the enemy to be feared by the audience. Yet, despite the audience not relating to this character, they still want to know more and engage with the film so it would still relate to them and appeals to them because it achieves an effective reaction.

AS Evaluation-Q4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

















A target audience is a specific group of people within the market at which the product is aimed at. The target audience for the thriller would fall in the filming certificate bands for a specific age range to watch a certain film. 

My target audience was 12 year olds as our thriller was not going to show a lot of violence and it would only be using a limited amount of props such as weapons due to the tight budget. However after a meeting my group and I decided to expand the age to 15 year olds as they are the convectional target population for the projection of a thriller movie.
This was further reinforced by the target audience results which we recieved after we sent a survey.
I am sure that the  age range of 15-18 would like our thriller opening sequence as we will use several camera techniques including, my favorite Point of View camera angle, as it involves each of the audience personally, making them believe that they are in the movie. Our narrative relates to their parents`s everyday life. They would see that the main character is capable of doing anything to preserve his life in order to be next to his children.


The purpose why one, has a questionnaire is to find out whether, the target audience I have selected is correct and whether I should add more effects to the film, in order to spice it up and intrigue even further my audience. The survey was spread through the Internet via a survey website. As my ideal target audience (at the time) was 12, I was given the task to research the various film certificate requirements. I then found out that our thriller (Although packed with interesting techniques) would be quite dull, due to the limited special effects. 

Furthermore, the audience will be limited to what kind of weapons it can see as. This is why when we had a group meeting, we discussed and concluded that our target audience would be better to be increased to the age of 15. This way, not only do we gain more income (as mainly teenagers’ view thriller movies) but we also get a wider range of ages to watch it. It would be a wider as people in the age branch 20-29 like watching gory thriller movies.