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

During the progression of editing the two minute opening of my film, I believe that I have definitely developed my filming but also editing techniques as I was able to practice this and work on it a lot.  I believe that my preliminary task especially, helped me developed my skills as it was a great opportunity to try out certain techniques such as the 180 degree rule, match on action and point of view shots in order to see how they would turn out and what I needed to improve on and needed to remember while filming the real two minute opening of my film.  In the preliminary task we also tried out over the shoulder shot, which I believe turned out nicely so we then included it in the opening of my film.  To further, develop my skills and knowledge I watched numerous two-minute openings (especially those within the thriller genre, as I wanted to make sure that elements we included in our film conformed with generic conventions of a thriller) and saw how they used them in order to appeal to audience members.  In addition to this, I think that the preliminary task helped me greatly with editing as I realised that it is very important to have more than enough footage even if you think you are done filming because it may not flow as smoothly as initially thought. In addition I feel like the editing in my final product was more advanced than in the preliminary task as it flowed a lot smoother. 

Although, in my preliminary task I included shot – reverse shot, we did not do this in the two-minute opening, as we did not really include any dialogue. We did however, use over the shoulder shots as previously mentioned to enable the audience to see things from different perspectives. We additionally, used over the shoulder shots to see what the focused character was seeing/doing, allowing the audience to feel like they are a part of the storyline. For example, from the over the shoulder shot we used in the car, I think it is successful as it makes the audience feel like they are in the back seat of the car and are witnessing everything the character is doing through their own eyes.

Furthermore, I think that my match on action skills have improved a lot mainly because in the preliminary task it was a little bit jumpy, whereas, in the two minute opening of our film it turned out a lot smoother. In my preliminary task, I used match on action to make the scene where Seth opens the door (walks through) and closes it, it was helpful as it made the two different shots once edited flow very smoothly as if shot in one attempt. The preliminary task also helped with trying to get the duration of the footage right in order for it to flow again smoothly once edited (slow it down or even make it faster).  For the two -minute opening of my film however, I used my knowledge of match on action to make it more advanced, using two different examples of match on action shots.  I think, that the examples of match on action were much more effective than those in the preliminary task as we also included extreme close ups, close ups and loose frames within them to give it a more creative and interesting element.

In the two-minute opening of our film, we also tried out point of view shots as we thought it would not only allow the audience to see thing s from different perspective but also to feel puzzled and try and develop the storyline further and emphasise the fear, as they will empathise with the characters.  I feel that as a whole, looking back at my preliminary task it helped me a lot with seeing things that I needed to improve in order to bring a more professional element to it but also attract the audience. I’m glad I was able to carry out the preliminary task as I feel that if I didn’t do it the quality of my work would not have improved in the right ways.

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

During the process of constructing the final product, I feel that my knowledge of technology has definitely grown a lot.

While capturing footage for our film, Ellie and I used our phones, although I think you can tell the difference between the footage due to some being shot from an iPhone 6 and other from a 4, the footage was very successful and came out in very high quality, this enabled the two minute opening of our film to have a professional feel to it and be as realistic to an established thriller as possible. Our phones were very easy to use; therefore, no issues came to our attention whilst filming, as they are quite straightforward.

To edit our film, we used the editing software iMovie, on the Apple Mac at school. I feel that at the beginning I felt a bit worried as it was something new to me and I found it a bit complicated, however, after practising and going over our footage an endless amount of times I feel that I grew a lot more confident as the quality of the work I had contributed improved massively. While using iMovie, we mainly experimented with enhancing, changing (making it either fast or slow motion) and cutting our footage.

Through the research and planning stages of our film, I used numerous technologies and programmes to present my findings in a much more organised and creative manner. The ones I did mainly used however, are Prezi, YouTube and Slideshare. I used these programmes as it was easiest to share/embed these on to my blog. Through the research and planning, when I created PowerPoints, I would then convert them to a Slideshare. I also used Prezi quite a few times to present my ideas and information I found in a methodical way to see exactly what I needed to do to improve. I really like how while using Prezi, you are able to present information in a clear yet artistic way as it allows you to do so using very colourful and interesting templates.

I do believe that throughout this process YouTube has been very helpful, mainly because it allowed me to look at previous G321 preliminary tasks and two-minute openings. In addition to this, it has been helpful as I was able to share my final product and get feedback from other people and see where I could improve. YouTube is generally very easy to access and was as a whole very helpful throughout the construction of my final product.

Furthermore, I think that the technology I learnt most about is Blogger. This is because I have been using it throughout the school year in order to track my development as a whole and go back to view previous research and planning posts/information that I might need very easily as it is a very easy programme to navigate. Similarly to iMovie, at the very beginning I thought it would’ve been very difficult to use Blogger, however, I think that I am now able to get things done very smoothly and easily without any major difficulties. Throughout this process, I additionally found out how to embed things onto my blog. These mainly included YouTube videos, Prezi and Slideshare Presentations that became very         useful throughout the research and planning process.

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

When watching this YouTube video, please got to settings and press annotations on, because in this video through the added annotations I explain how to attract/address the targeted audience of my film. 

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

https://www.powtoon.com/show/dNvqruP43bX/untitled6/ 

• I created these slides on PowToon (equivalent to Prezi) to answer Question 4 of the evaluation tasks. In these slides I included information about the targeted audience and as a whole analysed what they would predictably be like. 

• I believe that through my slides I can draw a conclusion as to why our film would appeal to him. I believe that our film would appeal to him/them because the music/sound we used is quite fast paced just like the music he is interested in but also because he may be able to identify with the other characters in the rest of our film and use it as a form of escapism.  

• Please view the slides on full screen as the logo of the programme I used covers some of the information I presented. 

Evaluation Question 3: What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

• An institution is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption, in this case as well as marketing. We looked into film institutions that might distribute our film. The company would disperse the films to cinemas, then DVD or on websites such as Netflix and love film. The production company we chose was tristar and this company is linked with Columbia which is a distribution company therefore they would be great distributors, they distribute to countries worldwide.

• This company has also distributed, Zero Dark Thirty to a number of countries such as USA, UK, Portugal, Hungary and Italy. Captain Phillips, a thriller and girl with the dragon tattoo, a mystery thriller, therefore this distribution company would be viable as they are experienced with distributing thrillers and mystery films to a mass market. and have shown clear success.

• As we mentioned before, our production company is tristar, we chose this company because in the past couple of years they have produced many thrillers and horrors so this means that they are focused in that area. A film called The Call was produced by them and after looking into this film I have discovered that it is about a teenager being kidnapped which is what our film is based on, therefore this institution would be best as they have experience in creating thrillers, horrors and dramas.

•  A production company helps to create the film and helps with budgeting, casting, scheduling, scripting and more. They hold a lot of responsibility over the film, such as finding cast and crew. The logo for Tristar is effective because its stands out and grabs the audiences attention.

• As a vertically integrated company, we would gain money for the film by getting other production companies on board, who have the same vision and values with film making. Furthermore, we would target big budget production companies in order to gain the best equipment, our intended production company, TriStar will fund the film or seek additional funding from Columbia. 

• Titles in a film are very important as they are there to inform the audience about the cast and crew behind the film. We looked at other film openings to see orders of titles and what crew are included in the opening sequence to the film. 

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

I think that the character Elissa, played by Jennifer Lawrence in House at the End of the Street has a lot of qualities similar to the protagonist of our film. Similarly to our film, House at the End of the Street is a psychological thriller/ drama and therefore has a lot of similar scenes and ideas behind the film.

Both Elissa and our protagonist are shown throughout as vulnerable characters, Elissa was left alone tied up in a basement as she dated someone who pretended to be someone who he was not. He was in fact psychologically disturbed man and when she stumbled upon his secret he tried to manipulate her but she was the only one of his victims that managed to escape. Similarly to our protagonist, Anna managed to escape from her abductor but we mainly see her journey of struggle trying to get to safety.  I believe that, these photographs especially show how they are both presented vulnerable, not only because they are tied up, but because you can see the fear and frustration in their eyes and through their facial expressions.

Both Elissa and Anna represent girls in their late teens, aged between 17-20. This is mainly because females are stereotypically more afraid and sensitive in comparison to males who are much more often stereotypically presented as tough and masculine.

One of the main reasons we used a female character as a protagonist is because we felt that it would fit in perfectly with some of the generic conventions of a thriller although this could’ve challenged them (Femme Fatal) as ours is seen as a vulnerable and not an independent female. The fact that they are presented with vulnerability allows the audience to be left wondering what will happen next as it is clearly presented that she is in trouble, yet are left with unanswered question as to what will happen next. Furthermore, we thought it would be most effective instead of using a male character as a protagonist because we thought that the fear would be more easily emphasised than if we used a male character.

Additionally, many teenagers who are female will be able to identify with the protagonist as she is shown wearing casual clothes, commonly worn by typical teenage girls. Similarly, both Elissa and Anna are wearing, a t-shirt/vest top with khaki trousers/leggings with a jumper/cardigan which are as a result dirty due to their struggle. I feel that this now, makes it easier for audience members, particularly girls to identify with our protagonist as she is shown through her clothes and the way she carries herself that she is only a teenage girl who shows fear throughout, as she is isolated. Although they may identify with her they will not be able to identify with what she has been through (the psychological element of our thriller) as this is not something that occurs often.

Although Anna and Elissa are similar in many ways, I think they are also very different as in the two minute opening of House at the End of the Street the audience is introduced to an incident which occurred relating to the man Elissa dated, and then are transitioned to four years later, Elissa calmly playing the guitar outside a house. Whereas, in our two-minute opening, straight away the audience is introduced with a heavy element of action as they see Anna running for safety as fast as she can in an isolated place.

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

The title of our film is Stockholm Syndrome we decided on this name as it is a psychological condition which is very tough to understand, therefore fitting in nicely with our chosen genre of thriller with hints of mystery and action. We chose to place it at the end of the opening two minutes as I believe this fits in perfectly with conventions of many films especially of the thriller genre as we didn't want to give to much away to the audience but still have them wanting more and wandering what could possibly have happened next. Similarly to this, I believe that the red and white colour of the font of our title also fits in with typical thriller conventions as these colours connote danger and blood and the white could possibly resemble the protagonists personality. Additionally it is known that black is the absorption of all colour and the absence of light. Black hides while white brings to light and what black covers, white uncovers. This is also why we used a black background for our film title as it may represent the villain, the colour red foreshadowing blood loss. Furthermore, the colour white, representing the protagonist and how possibly later on in the film it may uncovered why the villain carried out his actions and behaves the way he does. This could also be viewed as challenging the methods of a predictable thriller as we have stuck to two colours throughout whereas most thrillers just use one to suggest a sense of consistency. We did however, chose to use these two colours as we also wanted to show clear contrast between the two characters; red representing the evil of the abductor and white representing the purity of the protagonist.  The font we chose is named Hacked and is a fragmented font which appeals to the distinctive elements of being disturbed and warped.

This frame shows where we captured most of the opening two minutes of our film. This shot is very important as it helps set the location and what the protagonists surroundings are like as it shows her running half way through the shot. We chose the location to be a forest as it has a creepy and eerie atmosphere giving it an unsettling feel, keeping the audience on the edge. Furthermore, we chose a forest for the location because it is also seen in many other thrillers and horrors such as The Cabin in the Woods, Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead and Mama. Using a forest as the location was very beneficial as it is isolated which again links to the detail that the protagonist is scared and abandoned, left alone. Additionally, another setting we used was on the road, we made sure that the road was wide and quite so we could film freely without interruptions but also show how the girl is in danger as the car could drive past very fast to indicate intensity and urgency, making the audience feel uneasy and anxious about what will happen to the girl and concerned about her safety.   

For costume we decided that it would’ve been best if our protagonist was wearing casual clothes (shown just like in the photograph taken of Anna on the day of filming). Items of clothing that a stereotypical teenager would wear in order to also fit in with the cliché conventions of a thriller film. I believe, that the costume similarly plays a huge role in attracting the audience as they will more naturally identify with the girl/ protagonist, which allows the audience to also empathise with her (and the situation she is in) but also add tension to the atmosphere, adding a more scary feel to the film. Although the clothes Anna is wearing remind the audience she is a teenager as they fit in with the typical teenage attire, the mud she has on her clothes show that she has been through a struggle and the fact that she is still running suggests that this struggle is possibly not over yet. In the flashback we thought that another hint of parts of the story line could’ve been the clothes she is wearing but also the heart necklace (which is only seen in the parts where she is running in the forest- could be a present from the abductor) . These are very important as the clothing suggests that because she is dressed very smartly and elegantly, that maybe she knew her abductor, possibly was planning on going somewhere with them. This encourages the audience to think for themselves further into the storyline as the drums we see in the flash-back suggest that the villain/ abductor took her back to a familiar location (to him) to add to his power (leaving her even more vulnerable), possibly his house as she seemed unsettled which is natural but this again appears obvious as she keeps looking around as if she is trying to figure out an exit strategy. From what we see in the flashback, we can see that the male character/ villain (we can, as an audience tell he is a villain from the fear she shows towards him when he walks in) wearing dark coloured clothing items particularly with the colour black, this is also quite a stereotypical attire of a villain. This separates him from the audience, emphasising his power and his role as a villain. This is mainly because black connotes, the hidden and the unknown and as a result creates an air of mystery. The colour is also known as a barrier between itself and the outside world, which could again add to the idea that there may be something wrong with the male character. 

While filming, we wanted to capture our footage in interesting ways. We managed to do this by using a variety of angles, which are shown in the photographs above. We did this in order to fit in with the conventions of a drama/thriller. The most used angles and shots that appear to be used in thrillers are point of view angles and this is because it allows the audience to feel like they are also going through what the protagonist is enhancing the tension in the atmosphere. Additionally, low angles are also used to portray the characters in a more dominant way and close ups are used to highlight the fear and expressions on a characters face. In the two-minute opening of our film we wanted to set the location through our camera angles and therefore, shot some of the footage from behind trees in order to retain the sense of mystery, just like in a established/real thriller. We additionally used, marginally canted shots to show the confusion the girl may be feeling. This helps make the audience also feel confused or even anxious as they are still left in the dark as to what is going on and what will happen. We also used close ups to present tension the protagonist is feeling, allowing the audience to feel as if they are right there in front of her and are seeing the amount of power she is using to run away. We lastly, used wide shots/ loose frames to convey the setting of the forest but also show how isolated and alone she is in such a huge and creepy area. Examples of the shots we used are shown above in the pictures. Furthermore, through the use of various angles we wanted to portray that even though she managed to escape where she was help there's actually no escape for her, she can't get away as there is always someone watching her every move all the time. 

For our films two-minute opening we chose to use a font for the title, which is named Hacked from the website Dafont, we chose this one as it appears distressed and somewhat high- tech, which, I believe would link nicely into the storyline of kidnapping. The look of the font shows the pain and danger that the protagonist is feeling/ going through,I think that this links nicely in with the generic conventions of thrillers. Through the font research and other opening analysis I thought that the nicest fonts and most appropriate were Seven and Taken as they had an element of distress and disfiguration to them. As we placed the title at the end we wanted to make it stand out more and let it be a sudden change in order to keep the audience interested and think further of what will happen. For the titles throughout the two-minute opening however, we used a font that was already on iMovie named Vertical drift as it was easy to see on top of the action but was also very subtle, bright enough for the audience to see them yet subtle enough to allow the audience to get fully engrossed in the film and not miss out on any of the action. In order to have connote anger and urgency we used capital letters, we also did this to make them stand out even more. In the films Taken and Shutter Island we see the use of the colours red especially as they connote blood, anger and danger. To fit in with the generic conventions of a thriller we decided to make the colours of the font dark red and white as white could show a huge contrast between the two characters.

I believe that the flashback really helps develop the storyline even more mainly because we as an audience receive clues and hints as to why and where the protagonist is. In the flashback, we decided to add a close up of the protagonists heart-shaped necklace and I think that this adds mystery because it can be seen as a clue because she isn’t wearing it in the scenes where she is running through the woods, it also helps the audience use their imagination to create a different ending if they are not pleased with it. I believe that this as a result is very effective as it adds to the element of mystery. I believe that not only the flashback but also the car scene develops the storyline nicely as we see glimpses of the person through close up shots through the mirror. As a whole, I think that the whole two minutes flow very nicely as there is an continuous development of the storyline while also keeping the audience with certain questions such as why the villain behaves in this way and why he has captured her. I feel like the flashback was a very effective part of the two minute opening as it was a different way to show the audience what has happened while also not give too much away. Furthermore, I feel this relates to the generic conventions of a thriller as throughout the two minutes we are as an audience constantly given clues in order for us to stay engrossed in what's going on.

The protagonist in our film is constantly shown throughout the two-minute opening. She is introduced to the audience as a character who has gone through something traumatic as she is running through the forest and looks very afraid and anxious. During the two minute there is a scene where she is running (obviously as she is running in fear for her safety she is just concentrating on getting to get to a safer/ more crowded place) she suddenly trips and falls over. Above is a screen grab of the scene where she has regained consciousness (after having a flashback) due to falling over and is about to carry on running. In this photograph you see the fear on her face as she was again in a vulnerable position and could’ve been found again by the villain. I believe that this scene as a whole fits in nicely with generic conventions of films within the thriller genre as usually the characters (particularly female characters) are presented as vulnerable, to correspond to the stereotypes of gender. I furthermore, think that this allows the audience to feel as if they can relate to the character.

Throughout the editing of the two-minute opening of our film, we tried using numerous special effects in order to enhance the vibrant elements of the raw footage to make it appeal more to the targeted audience members. Although, they were effective, a lot of them did however, challenge the generic conventions of a thriller mainly because it gave them a less scary feel at certain parts (where we relied more on the music and sound effects). The special effects we used included transitions, blackouts (darker screen/ black background) and bringing an element of slow motion. In order to emphasise the fall we made the raw footage darker (I think that this also reflected the storyline nicely) and changed the action to slow motion in order to emphasise the dramatic action, in this case the fall. To show a clear contrast but still create the same effect on the audience, we changed the car scene to a fast motion to enhance the danger and speed of the car as this fits in nicely and appeals to generic conventions of a thriller. I also believe that as the car sounded and went faster the audience will feel more scared and edgy.