Final Video

Evaluation 7 - Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fYWYoGSsGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=senQNtoURls

Evaluation 6 - What You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

 We used many different social media websites when producing our thriller. For example we used twitter in a way to gain a fan base like you would with a normal film production company would do. We made regular tweets with things like photos containing images of what we was doing during that time so it varied from doing blogs in lesson or doing blogs while shooting during the day. We followed many people that was either in the film industry or had some sort of connection to people in this industry as it was the sort of audience was trying to gain information and ideas from.

Twitter-We used many different social media websites when producing our thriller. For example we used twitter in a way to gain a fan base like you would with a normal film production company would do. We made regular tweets with things like photos containing images of what we was doing during that time so it varied from doing blogs in lesson or doing blogs while shooting during the day. We followed many people that was either in the film industry or had some sort of connection to people in this industry as it was the sort of audience was trying to gain information and ideas from.

Vine-Twitter wasn’t the only piece of social media we used during our time, we also used vine as well.  We thought this was a good idea as vine is an app were you can do short video clips for 6 seconds, meaning while we was shooting we could do short clips to post onto vine that would build up overtime. This enabled people that followed our account to also gain access to what we was doing and see different idea we was coming up with like trial and error to see what come across well, because on vine people can like your posts this also made us see what ideas were popular and what ideas wasn’t too good so this help us when selecting this for the final thriller!

  

Instagram-Instagram was also an app we used during the time we tried to promote and advertise our production company. it is easy to upload photos  this is why we liked the app because it is then easy for people that follow you to see the photos you have uploaded which is good for promotional reasons. Also another good thing Instagram offers is that if someone likes your photo it instantly goes onto a page were the people they follow can see and then view this.

YouTube-YouTube was a very to our group because It meant we could watch previous thrillers and gain new ideas that we could then bring forward into our thriller when producing it.We also used it to upload new pieces we had done so that it could then be view and people could see what we had been doing! We also used it has a place to store all our finished pieces on one page making it a link though other videos we had posted, so after every video had finished we would then suggest others we had made. 

Evaluation 5 - How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Evalutation 4 - Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

AUDIENCE

When referring to people may not wanting to watch our thriller, this category of people could be a more adolesent audience. People who are younger and not yet able to fully understand proper conventions and codes of a thriller. This audience may just be plain scared of the given situation and not fully understand the connotations that the story line holds.

Similarily, people of a much older generation may not fully understand these contextual factors as they do not have any knowledge on the connotations.  

Evaluation 3 - What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product And Why?

This is a slideshare of our evaluation 3, however due to not having powerpoint the circumstances have changed. If you click the down arrow, it misses out some of our work, so instead you will need to scroll down with your mouse.

Evaluation 2 - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Evaluation 1 - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

The Title of the Film

The title of our thriller develops forms and conventions of a film opening. We chose the title "The Following" as it allows the audience to interpret the film coming up. We also felt that it gives the impression that the film is going to be quite scary and un-easing. Many people suffer traumatic experiences from being followed every year. We have decided to use this to help express the fear people go through. We watched a lot of different types of thrillers, most of which had names specifically about what was going to occur in the film. Taking this into consideration we felt as though we would follow forms and conventions and went with "The Following".

Setting/Location

The location of our opening is split between an empty car park and a dark alley. Both of these locations were chosen to give the audience the impression of loneliness and helpless. After watching other thrillers of followers and stalkers we wanted to use dark and small locations, adding to the loneliness. Switching between locations increased the vibe of loneliness and also helped create a variety of shots available, giving us more ideas and possibilities. The two locations contributes to forms and conventions of a thriller as it is helping the audience to portray their own interpretation of what is going to happen next.

Costumes and Props

We created a poster of one of our locations as a prop in our thriller. We managed to put it on to a pillar in the car park and smeared dark lines across the back of it. This was to create fear in the character and tension amongst the audience. We felt as though using the poster by itself did not create the fear and tension we wanted, and so managed to add dark lines to the back of it acting as finger marks. By sticking to the theme we decided to have the "follower" dressed in all black with only his eyes showing so that he cannot be seen. We felt that by doing this we were contributing to forms and conventions of a thriller as it is creating a dark and mysterious vibe.

Camera Work and Editing

At the very beginning of our thriller we had the name of our group appear in an empty alley. Straight away this tells the audience that the oncoming film is going to be spooky. We used iMovie which had a selection of film openings, however there was only one creepy theme which made it easy for us to choose. In the middle of our opening a sequence of flashes occur showing the character wearing full black with only his eyes on show coming closer and closer. This develops to forms and conventions of a thriller as it helps portray that the character is the "bad guy". Throughout our thriller we used a variety of camera shots and angles to help create tension amongst the audience. Due to our chosen locations, we able to use more shots than expected and so changed the way we envisioned our film.

Title Font and Style 

At the beginning of our thriller we introduce our actors on 2 separate sides of the clip. This is based on the opening of cape fear, where the names of the actors playing the "bad" characters appear on the right and the names of the "good" characters appear on the left. We also slightly changed the font of the "bad" character to help the audience distinguish who is who. We felt as though by using the same features as cape fear, a famous and high quality thriller, we are following codes and conventions of a typical thriller.

Story and how the Opening Sets it up

Before we started filming our thriller we decided we wanted to create a tense atmosphere and a sense of loneliness. We also wanted to use two different settings in time, for example using flashbacks, future visions etc. By watching our opening we feel as though we have portrayed this through a variety of key features, the main being our choice of locations. Our location settings gives the audience a sense of loneliness and creates an un-easy vibe. Also when the camera zooms into the poster from the wall the shot goes to a flashback, then returns back to present time and current events.

Genre and how the Opening Suggests it

The genre of our opening scene is a thriller. A key feature of thriller is the unknown and unease and so we wanted to create a never ending atmosphere so the audience felt like there was a risk the whole time. We wanted them to empathise the "follower" throughout our opening and engage the audience to make them feel as though they know what will happen next. Our opening to a thriller starts with an everyday protagonist which is usually seen in a thriller, we also had music playing over the top. This creates an tense atmosphere and it makes the audience feel as though something bad is going to happen to him.

How Characters are Introduced

In the opening of our thriller the audience is introduced to 2 main characters. We introduced the "good" guy first with a point of view shot into a middle shot to show that it is his life being affected. We then switch locations to the dark alley where the "bad" character is introduced. Due to the location and the clothes he is wearing, it is easy for the audience to interpret that he is the villain. When the location is switched back to the car park, both characters are seen, allowing the audience to create a further interpretation of them.

Initial Ideas

This is a mind map of our initial ideas. We created this when first discussing what our thriller should consist. After coming up with ideas as to what we could have included in our film, we decided to think of production names, which are shown in the bottom left hand corner. We had many choices of how to plan our thriller but ended up deciding on a mind map, we felt it was the quickest and most efficient way to put all our ideas together and get them down on paper. We just put "ideas" in the middle and had branches coming off it with a particular theme, we would then expand on that theme for the next branch.

Props and Costumes

We have decided to have two very different characters within the opening of our thriller - the protagonist and antagonist. They will wear very different clothes to help the audience to very quickly represent who is the villain etc.

The antagonist will be wearing all black clothes - T-shirt, trousers, hoodie, shoes etc. This is so he is easily seen and known as the "bad guy" but also so he can easily be distinguished in the street lights down a dark alley. He will also be wearing a mask or have dark face paint on, to illustrate a "masked mad man". We chose black due to the mysteriousness of the colour, the only thing you can see is the villains eyes, this makes it more creepy as he is just a man trying to hide his identity and this could happen to anyone, that is what we were trying to convey. Also black links directly to darkness, this implies that the villain is dark emotionally and maybe even kills people just to get a thrill. We took into account how dark it would be in the alley but still decided to go with all black, this was to frighten the viewer as you cannot see much of the villain apart from his eyes.

The protagonist will be wearing casual or "normal" clothes so he is also very easily illustrated. The clothes do not have a certain colour scheme, but will differ from the black worn by the villain. However brighter clothes will have to worn to stand out in a dark alley. There were certain pieces of clothing that John owned that would illuminate him in the darkness, e.g. his shoes and the badge on his bodywarmer, we felt this made our thriller more creepy as you could not see anything other than Johns shoes, it also helps the viewer to know where he is. We chose lighter colours for John  because they are opposing  characters in many ways, one is a masked killer and the other is just a normal person, the difference between "good" and "evil".

Settings and Locations

These are two locations we are going to use for our thriller opening. The first two pictures are of a multi-storey car park, where the main character sees a picture of the alley shown in the two pictures below. The second pair of images are where the character will travel to after he looks at the picture of the alley.

We chose these locations as we feel as though they add to codes and conventions of a thriller. After watching many thrillers and other students work we worked out that the typical locations used are isolated. Many thrillers consist of abandoned houses and dark forests, and so we took this in to consideration when choosing our locations. We used an empty car park to shoot the beginning and the end of our thriller opening as feel as though it gives the vibe of isolation and loneliness. We also decided to use a dark alley which is lit up by a few street lights contributing to forms and conventions of a thriller. We had the idea of using a dark woods, as it is seen in many thrillers, however we realised we would have trouble with the lighting and so we felt as though the alley was the perfect location for us to film our thriller.

Risk Assessment

Health and Safety assessment

Hazards	Who’s exposed	Risk at stake	Control measures	Risk high or low
Debris on the floor in the woods	Actors and staff	Tripping over and getting injured	We will clear our path before shooting	Low
Be careful  by the edge of the multi-story car park	Actors and staff/camera staff	Slipping and falling from height	Make sure the surface is dry and keep well away from edge	High/medium
Sharp props	Actors	Lacerations on skin	Make sure they are handled with care	Low
Sufficient lighting in dark areas	Actors, staff and camera staff	No having enough lights and not seeing hazards	Bring sufficient lighting like touches and lamps	Medium
Ask permission for places of filming	Everyone	Not being able to film somewhere	Ask permission	Low
Cars in the car park	Everyone	Getting knock over by a car	Be aware of your surroundings	Low
Stunts	Actors	Injuring yourself	Only do things to your limitations	Low

Pitch/Brief

We have had many influences that have made us decide on where and what to film about. Influences from movies we have seen for instance, have given us an idea on what we intend to include within our thriller.

Our plot originated from several ideas we gathered from films we had seen, and thrillers that took to our liking. We tried to make all of our scenes strongly support the proper codes/conventions of a traditional thriller, by implementing shots and scenes that made the audience feel on edge about what would happen next.

The reasons behind our plot came from group discussions and we all conferred about what we thought would support conventions of a thriller, and what also would compliment the 'nail biting' factor. As audience expectations of a thriller are for it to be tense, scary and entertaining, we made sure our plot suited and supplied all of these techniques.

As a production group, we, TwistedInc came up with the name 'The Following' for our thriller. The name suited our storyline and meant that we could have a name that run smoothly in comparison to our story.

Our thriller consisted of two main characters, John who was the protagonist. He played an innocent character and one that's imagination is tormented and played with. George plays the antagonist. He is the one who stalks the main character and is the mysterious and dark entity behind our thriller.

We filmed our thriller in two locations, both supporting an empty/eerie atmosphere that complemented our story line. An alley was one location, this location gave a lonely and uneasy environment in which caused the audience to feel on edge. We ensured that it was very dark and silent which added to the effect. The other location was a car park. We went on a night when it would be not busy and empty. This supported the theory of it being isolated from others and made the protagonist feel very alone.

Props and costumes in our thriller meant that they had to suit the storyline and characters. George was dressed in all black and appeared very questionable and worrying. John was dressed in a normal apparel which simply supported a stereotypical individual that was of no importance.

Storyboard

This is a picture of the storyboard we created.

• The main character is in a multistorey car park, sees a picture of an alley on a pillar and remembers it from somewhere
• Camera zooms in to the picture so you can see the alley with more detail
• Character gets a flashback to the empty alley shown in the picture
• He hears a noise and turns around, turns back and a creepy man is standing at the end of the alley
• The camera zooms into a closeup on the mans face, and he makes a creepy smile
• The creepy man starts getting closer, and ends up running towards the character
• The main character runs away but trips over and falls on his back (switching to a point of view shot)
• He sees the creepy man walking slowly towards him and his hands reach out towards his face
• Cuts to darkness
• Point of view shot waking up in the car park
• Stands up and rushes over to open his car door
• Gets in car and sees creepy man walk past the front of his car
• Drops keys on they floor
• Struggles to pick them up, finally grasps them
• Sits up and looks in rear view mirror, creepy man is sitting in the back seat
• Man slowly wraps his hand around characters shoulder
• Clenches hand to grip shoulder tighter

Focus Group Findings

Expectations on a thriller are usually quite high. Audiences often presume that the film is going to excite them and put them on edge at some stage, during the scene. These thrill seekers go to see films that appear frightening, because they want to be entertained and not just bored during the sequence. They want to be put on edge and that is why thrillers are so effective at doing this.

What creates a good thriller is the ability to get the audience on the edge of their seat. Leave the receivers in a sense of unease and so that they do not know what to expect next in a certain scene, like jumping from shot to shot successfully, and implimenting suitable music and sound effects to add to the overall influence it has on the audience.

Quick cuts that mess with the audiences mind and build up a general atomsphere of suspense. Making the audience think about what potentially could happen, giving them all different types of alternatives to what may occour, then rapidly shock the watchers. Providing thrills from various circumstances evident in the story, where the protagonist/main character encounters certain types of menace,mysterious or dangerous situations. When making a thriller movie, the question of what comes next foremost in the viewers' minds as the movie progresses is very key. Fast paced and a lot of actions that the audience must take in to enable to them to fully be gripped by the storyline.

Prelim Task

Our preliminary task was not planned, we were told we had to meet certain requirements. We did the shot/reverse shot although when we actually do it for our thriller we will zoom in closer on the subjects face. We met the requirements for match on action when John is walking down the corridor and we also did the 180 degree rule when we swapped from Cam looking at John to John looking at Cam. We did have a few mistakes in our prelim, one of which was saying "alright" three times and the other was missing out a scene which we had previously filmed. If we were to do it again we would plan what shots we were going to do and take care to not delete any scenes we have filmed.   

Title sequence

Title sequence

Within every thriller the title sequence is a crucial part. This is because it must be something that stands out for the audience and keep them thinking for example in horror thrillers they are a number of colour schemes they use to match the film, they use colours such as Red with black to show a sign of evil and most commonly blood. These schemes as you can see are used a lot however with the title it needs to be able to tell a story within them and create an image for the audience and let their imagination take control and picture things that the title enables them to think of then when they see the film that imagination comes to life. Font is also something that need to stand out within the title because it also need to grab to audiences attention, so therefore they need to be big and bold but also with unique shapes to then so some titles may have a rough shape to them as seen with many Horror films because it must fit the whole theme of the film and not look out of place.

When it comes to naming the film a lot of film makers and editors try to think of a message within the film sometimes that will be portrayed so it keeps the people watching thinking because not a lot has been given away, we mostly see this in films with possession for example “The Conjuring” and “insidious” however some films go for something more obvious like “MAMA” were the main character is named in the title.

When it comes to naming our Thriller these are all things me and my group will all have to consider and think about carefully because it needs to be catchy and grab our audiences attention for it to be successful.

Cape Fear Analysis

Cape Fear Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoO0ZsQ7tBg&feature=share&list=PLD261D117B3C8B9DE

This opening scene is a portrayal of a very intense and great introduction to the film. Without even seeing too much, the opening gives the reciever a feeling of how the film is going to turn out. Through sound, editing and other factors all contributing towards a general atmosphere of uncertainty and fear.

The credits throughout the opening scene are cut in half, furtherly implying how a sense of violence is put across and it makes the reader develop the representations that these opening parts are trying to create an uncomfortable vibe.

An eagle appears within the ripples in the water. These ripples within the water imply how something is in action and not calm, specifically adopted by Scorsese to create unease. The eagle represents a predator, therefore referring to how the stranger that also appears in the distortion of the water. When the eagle is visible within the water, it comes out of the picture and almost simultaneously after, Robert De Niro's name appears. To the viewer, this is the first instance of seeing him, a well known actor that is going to be in the movie. Little do they know that he is the psychotic character in the film. Both the eagle and other factors contribute towards Robert De Niro being symbolised as a mysterious character.

When other actors names come up in the credits, Jessica Lange, one of the victims to Robert De Niro, is on the opposite side of the screen. Between both actors, Nick Nolte's name appears, he is one of the people that tries to prevent killing/abuse. This is specifically designed by Scorsese to imply these implications.

Martin Scorsese, a famous and well recognised director associated with thrillers, causes his name to be well presented and expressed in the credits. When his name appears to say he directed it, the water turns red and the sound becomes extremely intense, causing the watchers to feel very on edge and uneasy. This inclusion of the colours revolved around violence, and sound/editing all contributes to the receivers knowing clearly that what is in store for the film.

During the opening scenes alike the other factors, a pair of eyes appear. They dart around and furtherly promote a sense of anxiety and paranoia. Monochrome effects in use from Scorsese add to the affect of the audience. Wide open eyes infers how the victim is startled and under threat, the pupil of the mysterious eye is dilated, and coincidentally looking towards Robert De Niro's name. Influencing the receivers to gather a sense of how De Niro will play a sinister character.