Change of character's name!

During the course of writing the evaluation responses I became aware that my group decided to change the name of the victim character from 'Jennifer' to 'Bridget', the last questions are now written as Bridget yet I do not have time to change the first questions. I appologise for any confusion/ inconvinience this may cause when marking my evaluation.

Question 7

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

When planning my preliminary task our group made an effort to practise all of the shots described on the sheet which was given to us, once these were well practised we were able to focus on media terms such as ‘match on action’, ‘shot reverse shot’ and ‘the 180 degree rule’. Once I had learnt these terms and how to apply them during filming it was much easier to focus on the task in hand- filming a simple preliminary task. Filming and putting these techniques into action was harder than expected at first but by the time we had completed the shoot I was confident with all of the terms and techniques and felt I was ready to complete the task of planning and filming the opening to a thriller. Learning the techniques before filming the thriller was extremely helpful as it meant we did not have to do many practise shots before shooting the footage so the process was much shorter. It also meant we were able to envisage the different shots before we tried them out practically as we already knew what they looked like and the effect they had on the action.

The next task we had to complete was the planning, filming and editing of a two minute opening to a thriller film. The planning included extensive research into the thriller genre which I completed through many case studies of interesting thriller openings/scenes and detailed analysis of mise-en-scene and representation. This led to planning the plot of our thriller which was rather difficult as it meant not only agreeing with each other on the plot but agreeing on the character’s personalities, the costumes and the shot types. We finally decided upon using many close up’s and creating both of the characters as strong willed and confident, whether it is through the costume or through the violence. The location was very easy to choose as we agreed straight away- Kirsty’s garage. The location is bland and grey with a lifeless appearance, it is very isolated and looks sheltered from the public once inside. This was a good choice of location as it is a very realistic place for a captured/ abducted girl to be kept.

The non-linear narrative of our thriller opening has made it seem more in depth and interesting as there are black and white flashbacks which are placed in between shots of the disorientated girl, this creates the feeling of confusion and feels as if the audience have got an insight into the mind of the character. The non-linear narrative structure is generic of the thriller genre as Pulp fiction has a very complicated non-linear narrative which adds many layers to the plot. During my preliminary task my group decided to use a linear narrative as we were not yet familiar with other narrative structures.

The casting for our thriller was not difficult as Kirsty has friends with acting experience, at first two of Kirsty’s friends offered to act for the thriller but as filming got closer we realised that one of the actresses was not going to be available to film when we needed to so Kirsty took the role of Annie as she also has acting experience and was able to play the part well. During our preliminary task however, we decided that Kirsty and I were going to act which was not convincing as neither of us could play the part well but this helped us realise that when filming our thriller we must use people with acting experience.

Thinking of a title was one of the last things we did in the process of creating our thriller opening as we were not entirely sure what we wanted our title to mean, in the end we decided ‘Desolation’ was an effective title as it is short and snappy, memorable and means ‘isolation’ which is the theme of our thriller plot. The word ‘Desolation’ means “a. The state of being abandoned or forsaken; loneliness” (The free online dictionary)

When writing our titles we decided to keep the font neutral and simplistic as to ot take any attention away from the opening to the thriller, the research I completed on titles and openings to thriller films concluded that nothing extensive was needed as long as a neutral yet formal font was used.

We discovered the soundtrack when we had almost finished filming, when we played the soundtrack with the footage it seemed to fit exceedingly well and as we completed the edit we realised that the soundtrack fitted the edit perfectly. The soundtrack was on YouTube and the creator made it clear that if anyone was to use it, they must credit him on the video and send the finished product to him which is exactly what we have done.

Once I had found out how to use the effects, editing on premier elements was very easy to grasp. The program itself is very simplistic and does not make editing over complicated, adding the soundtrack to the footage was very easy, as was increasing the volume of the diagetic sound. Overall editing on premier elements was very easy to grasp and I am rather confident when using the program.

Our film ‘Desolation’ was shown to a group of year 12’s and a group of year 13’s, all of whom filled out an evaluative form explaining the strengths and weaknesses of the production, on average the production received a 6.5 out of 10 and to improve we must strengthen the cliff hanger. The reviewers enjoyed the suspense and the soundtrack.

Question 6

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

During filming, I found that there were many shots which didn’t go to plan as we did not have a tripod during our practise shoot. There is great importance in having the correct equipment as if you do not, the filming will look extremely amateur. When filming supposedly still shots by hand held camera, we found it was very hard to get a good shot so in the end we had to re film those shots when we had the right equipment. When using the tripod we found it much easier to get a very smooth shot, the panning shots were very effective using this method. When experimenting with the point of view shots, we decided that they looked much more realistic when using a hand held camera rather than a tripod.

When filming we had some issues with lighting as we were not able to see most of the footage from our practise shoot, we had attempted to film with dimmed lights yet it was not enough light to see the shot when it came to uploading it to the software on the computer. We resolved this issue by re filming the shots in ‘half lighting’ rather than full or dimmed which we found to be the perfect balance and we were able to view the footage perfectly.

When we started filming we used my own video camera, however after filming we found it was not compatible with the schools system, although this was not an issue as our footage was too dark to use in our final cut. We used the schools camera to film the rest of the footage which was very easy to work and had a tripod which it fitted into. The effects on the camera were not difficult to use however we decided to film all of the shots in full colour and edit them on the computer instead of filming some shots in black and white, just in case we decided to change our idea slightly, we needed all of the shots to be as versatile as possible so we could edit them as we wished.

During filming there were some issues with availability of the actress (Lucy Tyson) and myself as I live over an hour away from both Lucy and Kirsty (the second group member) and Lucy was very busy during the time we were shooting, a combination of these meant we had very little time to film but we managed to complete the filming in time to complete our edit. We never had any communication issues and we would always be in contact if there was something not up to standard with either the planning or the shoot and I think we corresponded very well as a team.

When capturing the film on premier elements we did not have many troubles, some of our footage was deleted from the tape where the rest of our footage was stored but we had that footage on a memory stick so we were able to upload it just after we had captured the footage.

We had some instruction when adding sound and titles as we were not able to work out how to do so, but once shown it was very easy to continue and finish the job on our own. Premier elements has taught me many things about technology which I would not have known if I had not used the program, it has made me confident with editing footage.

Using blogspot to upload my work is very interesting and has made me much more aware of different forms of media such as websites and videos. I have learnt how to use the internet to aid my research into certain aspects of the course and I have used a number of media programs such as Photopeach and prezi to complete my evaluation questions.

Question 5

How did you attract/ address your audience?

We attracted our audience through our use of a modern, realistic setting and plot. The decision to film the opening of the thriller in a garage was a conscious choice to involve the audience and to help them relate to the plot. A low budget film would have a larger impact on the audience if it was somewhere familiar to them rather than a Hollywood production in a very unbelievable location as the familiar place would seem like a ‘nightmare scene’.

Another way of attracting the audience is marketing; we would market the film on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace because these websites are growing in popularity  and therefore, many more teenage girls are using them. Youtube and Tumblr are also good places to market the film as these sites will help the film gain popularity.

The opening of the film has many jump cuts and fast cuts which make the style of editing seem more modern and tense, this is inspired by ‘Skins’ as the program is filmed and edited in a very modern yet unrealistic way. When researching into the programs people like if they are interested in skins, I found that most E4 shows such as ‘Misfits’ have the same audience and a similar style of editing and filming- this concludes that a more contemporary style of filming and editing attracts a younger audience.

High street fashion is a large part in the attraction of the target audience, the contemporary costume of Bridget is appealing to the target audience as they can relate to the style and the reality of the situation. The costume is casual which shows that she was having a normal day at college when she was abducted- this shows the audience that she is a normal girl wearing normal costume and this makes the situation more blood curdling for the audience as they would feel the situation could easily happen to them. 

‘Desolation’ is designed to make the audience realise the reality of abduction situations and tap into their collective fear of being mislead by someone you trust most. The film is a psychological thriller aimed at bringing up the audience’s inner fears and nightmares and making them look realistic. The reality of the situation was proven when I typed in ‘abduction’ to Google news and found over 5,240 results.

Question 4

The target audience for ‘Desolation’ is a 16-25 year old demographic because this group is most likely to enjoy the raw, gritty look of the low budget film, they are also the most likely to be able to relate to the characters as Bridget and Annie are both 17 years old. The audience will also be predominantly female as both characters in the opening of ‘Desolation’ are female, this means the audience can again, relate to the characters. As we would be aiming to distribute our film through Warp productions we would have an English audience who are interested in alternative or niche films and who are interested in films such as ‘This is England 86’ rather than a mainstream audience who are interested in multiplex cinemas and films like ‘ Love actually’. The contemporary clothing of our characters shows that the film is set in the modern day and is very up to date, yet the plot is very versatile and the idea of abduction has been used many times before- each with a different twist. The 2008 film ‘Taken’ is a very good example of this, it is about a young girl who gets abducted on holiday and is sold into the sex trade; this is much more mainstream and high budget than ‘Desolation’ would be yet it is a very big influence. After researching the user reviews on IMDB I found that Taken was best liked by ‘males under 18’ and ‘under 18’- this is due to the predominantly male cast, whereas Desolation would appeal to a female audience as it is a predominantly female cast.

Our choice of location appeals to generic thriller conventions as it is isolated and secluded, this will appeal to the target audience as it is very realistic and easy to relate to. The idea of using a garage originated from ‘Essex Boys’ as the first scene is set in a grimy garage. The reality of the mise-en-scene is very engaging for the audience as it grasps hold of their worst fears and brings them to life; the thought of becoming imprisoned in a place so familiar to you (your best friend’s garage) is a nightmare scene as it ‘Desolation’ is about deceit, mistrust and torture which should be thought provoking and scarily realistic.

DESOLATION- FINAL CUT

Question 2