Audience Feedback

After showing an audience my film opening I asked them feedback on how I thought they found the film, what type of film they thought it was, whether they would watch the whole and why. I was very happy to get such a positive response from them and they all came to the conclusion that it was a psychological thriller and they found the opening very intriguing and wanted to watch more to see how the rest of the film would pan out and how it created a lot of suspense and tension and made you want to watch more, really hooked you in. They said that they did want to watch the rest of the film because it seemed very suspicious and intriguing to find out what would happen next and find out the mystery element behind it.

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

Looking back on my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt in the progression different ways in which I can film things, for example, the different shots I can use to make things look more effective and interesting, from watching clips of film openings and generally keeping my eyes open when watching normal television I have picked up a range of different types of camera shots that came in very handy when it came to the main task. I feel that I have learnt about conventions in the film industry more and how institutions make their films successful by making them stand out, however at the same time making it somewhat similar so that it wouldn’t be too out of the box for audiences to watch. I also learnt and understood using different technologies and how they work and make things better which I found very interesting.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

From the technologies that I have used to create, develop and edit my media film product I learnt how to work a camera and their equipment such as the tripod and audio helps and also how to edit and film in Final Cut Pro. I found this very beneficial and enjoyed the experience of being able to play around with the equipment I had and trying to see what kind of things I could make work and look good, for examples, putting in screen play titles, different transitions and seeing what clips could merge together effectively to come together to create a good film. 

Who would be the audience for you media product and how did you attract your audience?

The audience for my media product would be the age gap 15-30 which is a wide range and can capture many different types of people, so it would probably also be narrowed down into people that enjoy to watch scary films such as psychological thrillers. People that like to have a film that you can think about what you’re watching and why rather than just watching a film for pleasure; people that enjoy to think about the ‘who dunnit’ element as well as watching an enjoyable film. The way that I will achieve this audience is by using the conventions that have been displayed in previous similar types of films, the types of ways that institutions get their audiences interested, the way they play with your imagination and think up different scenarios and try and get you to figure out which one is the reality and how they portray the protagonist and antagonist, and how in this case is the same person which would leave an interesting twist to go away and think about.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? What kind of media institution my distribute your media product and why?

My media product represents particular social groups such as people that interested in psychological thrillers because it uses the same type of conventions that a typical thriller does and so therefore I feel that people would be interested in watching this type of film.

I think that this product will be distributed on a British Film Channel and cover a wide range of audience ranging from different ages, and be shown after the water shed of nine o’clock. However I don’t think that this product will reach as high as America as the content and conventions are similar to that of other psychological thrillers and nothing new has been shown.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions or real media productions?

During the planning and research part of the process, I looked at different deconstructions with the same genre as my own to take note of the types of conventions that were used in the films that I could then incorporate into my opening. For example we looked at ‘Silence of the Lambs’ when discussing the screen play titles and how they were written to show the type of film it was going to be. Although we didn’t end up using the similar type of titles with the backward writing and such we did take the way that it was shown into consideration and it helped us to see what would look good on ours. We also looked at the different types of camera angles that are used in thriller films and after watching a few that ‘point of view shots’ were interesting ones to use to capture the audiences’ attention and make them wonder what was going on. However when it came to the audio sound of the film, we tried something a little bit different, something that hadn’t been done as many times, we decided to use instead of an eerie piece of music over the top of the film to create suspense and tension that we would use heavy breathing to show the audience of the nervousness of the character and get their minds thinking why it is we want to portray the character this way.

Two Minute Opening Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KSfSsCq2Qw

Main Task: Filming

We filmed our opening in February half term, and we are uploaded our footage onto the macs for the editing process. However some of the shots weren't as good as expected and so we've decided to film some of the clips again.

Outfit

For the characters outfit, I decided that the best fit would be baggy and scruffy clothes, showing that the distress of losing her child has affected all parts of her, including the lack of care for her personal appearance and clothing.

Music

The type of music we will use will be classical and very instrumental, that which is stereotypical to usual horror films, and have it playing from a music box.

Character

For our psychological thriller, we decided to only have one character in the first opening, as it was only relevant to have one character, and we also didn’t want to show too much content and expand on our story too much on the first two minutes. So therefore we just wanted this one woman, who would have been the main character, and slightly develop her, so people would know what to expect from the rest of the film and if it would be something they’d like to watch.

The woman would be young, having just lost her baby, very disorientated, not know what was going on, from the mourning of her lost child, we also decided that she would have ocd, and somehow incorporate this in an interesting way in the film. She suffers depression from her loss and this overwhelms everything, the way she looks at everything.

I opted to be the actress to play this character as we all thought I was best suited for the character, based on my size, and the young, innocent, vulnerable and naive look.

Film Deconstruction: Misery

For my second deconstruction, I decided to do another old film, again to see the different ways things were begun in different types of thrillers. Again, I hadn't watched this film.


Directed by Rob Reiner. It won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Annie Wilkes.


In the first few seconds the screen is black, apart from the reddish orange titles, then the screen goes back to just black and it is silent for a second or two and then the sound of a typewriter comes in, for three seconds before the image of the typewriter appears, this is successful use of a bridge. The hands that are typing are out of focus of the camera and the object of a match and cigarette infront are in focus. Then suddenly it's a jump cut when the 'ting' of the typewriter reaching the end of the page is used well as the camera shot is a long shot of a wine glass, empty. Still with the blurry character in the background, typing. This on screen for a couple of seconds and then changes to a wine bottle in an ice bucket, mid shot, doesn't show the top of the wine bottle. The camera then jumps to the typewriter itself and you read the sentence that reads 'without it, what else was there. ?' The character, revealed to be a man then takes the sheet of paper away and looks at it reading. He then hears a beep, ignores it the first time, and then the second time, puts the paper of the table and writes in pencil 'The End'. He puts the piece of paper on the stack of paper and aligns them up turns them over to the front to read 'Untitled' by 'Paul Sheldon'. The shot then moves on to a brown bag in which he slips the story in  and then pops the cork off the champagne, pours a glass and picks up his cigarette, looks at it and then puts it in his mouth, picks the match up and lights the cigarette, and takes a long drag.


In this opening it definitely leaves you thinking about what could happen next.

I used the YouTube Clip of Misery (1990) Stephen King (Part 1)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgqu2W3Ore4

Film Deconstruction: Cape Fear

After deciding to base our film opening idea on psychological thrillers, I thought that if I deconstructed a relatively old film opening then I could see how some of the clichés used began and came about in the beginning. 


Directed by Martin Scorsese, you know that it's going to be a very good film, as he is known for his modern crime and violent films which gain great success and is very well praised for being 'one of the most significant and influential American film makers of all time'.


Having never watched this film, I thought it would be good to do to see how the first two minutes would grab my attention and make me want to watch more and leave me thinking as to how the story would unfold in front me, and for me to wonder what would happen later on.


The establishing shot of the film is what seems to be a lake, with the rippling water flowing along across the scene, it seems to be early morning, or late evening; it has the titles appearing across during the first minutes. The music playing is instrumented by violins and is quite calm but stereotypical of a thriller, making you think something bad will happen soon; when the film reaches thirty eight seconds the music changes, in the same style and piece to a scarier tune, with pace picking up and tension building, on the screen appears a reflection of a very large bird, bird of prey perhaps, the bird looks almost evil and capable of hurting you as it's strong wings fly through the sky. The image of the bird is very brief, and is on screen for a few seconds. 


When the clip reaches one minute the mise-en-scene of the lake fades away to a black version of the lake, still flowing and the music continues to rise to a crescendo and the on the screen a single eye shows up, possibly a male, as regard to no make up. You see the eye move into different places within the sky, with the eye itself looking around. The eye closes and disappears and the lake continues to flow across the scene with the continuation of the titles. During the next twenty seconds, various images of parts of the body, including teeth, fade in and out. Next appears the whole face of a man with a beard, portraying fear into the audience, only briefly and then fades back out. The water keeps changing shape and the focust in the water, as if the moon is shining is emphasized when the different images of the face fade out, it seems as if now the time of day has changed to night. Then again, another whole face appears, perhaps a different one as it is still slightly blurred, covering the identity which could play a significant part in the rest of the film; it then fades back into the lake.


This opening made me think about the type of music we could use to create the type of suspension we need, interesting ways that we could show the titles, and interesting use of fades with different images relevant to the rest of our film.


The film, Cape Fear received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor (Robert DeNiro) and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Lewis), and was nominated for The Golden Bear, and nominated in 100 movie quotes, 'Come out, come out, wherever you are'. The Simpsons also used the film as a parody in an episode as 'Cape Feare'.


I used the YouTube Clip of Cape Fear - Part One. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66m1KIHl1tA

Brainstorming Ideas For The Main Task