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

Prelim Task Planning: ·         Less planning had already got given a script for the actors so all we needed to do was tell them what to do. ·         Basic equipment set up, checking for bubbling, focus and white balance. This gives us the basic camera work that would help us set up our shots on the real day. Development: ·         We had the basic skills we needed to get the shots, which would help us know exactly what we needed to work on for our main task. Use of camera: ·         We used good height and angles but could have used more close up which we now knew this would help us on the actually day on creating intensity. Use of sound: ·         We only used duologue that the actors were speaking, so it didn’t give us a big opportunity to try out different things but we learnt along the way.

Main Task Planning: ·         This took a lot more planning and time, ever little detail had to be thought about, how we were going to get to our off campuses location, equipment and script and organise the actors. ·         When it came to shooting we had to know exactly what shot we were going to, what angle and how many of the same shot do we need.  ·         When it came to the underwater shots and tracking shot we had to really focus on getting exactly what we needed as this was more complicated to set up.   Development: ·         We had developed our, organisation, expanded our understanding of using the cameras and expanding our use of different shots.        Use of camera: ·         We created some really good shots that we were all pleased with by using slow motion, close ups and under water shots that were all created for intercity. We developed our skills throughout the day.          Use of sound: ·         We created sound to help us create an atmosphere; we did this by using sound tracks and editing them to fit in with the scene.

Task 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Task 5 - How did you attract/address your audience.

When looking at our opening credit we decided that it needed to fade in when the scene first opens and then after she dives in fade the title out before she breaks to the surface. We used a simple text so that you are not drawn away from what is about to happen, we also made different fount sizes between the text to show what was most important to notice.

we used a medium shot to keep up with her as she swam along, making sure we got a shot as she was turning her head to breath to create an impact on the audience. The breathing gave us another sound element to play with so that you could feel a build up with the sound track behind and the pace of her swimming, like there is a panic going on.

We used underwater shots to get a different look at the situation it also gave us a challenge to work with an underwater camera as well as a normal camera. The camera captured some good sounds as well as good shots of her swimming from below and beside. This also brought intensity to the audience as we kept cutting back and forth from outside the pool to inside the pool showing how isolated she is.

Our end title sequence was created right at the end of editing by using after effects, we wanted to keep it simple still and match the other titles in the opening credit scene. By using after effects we were able to create a very slight wave effect that is being mirrored by the main title, showing a water effect.

when we first put the underwater shots into our editing we tried to put it in the right moments of tension to show how alone she is and also to give the audience a different angle of watching her. This would appeal to a young male audience.

We used a tracking shot to show someone entering the room but with out giving away too much so we focused on the feet to keep the audience guessing until the very end this will make the audience want to stay until the end as they want to find out who has been killing all these young people and why.

Task 4 - Who would be the target audience for your media production

Our target audience for our thriller would be young teenages from the age of 15-25 who would go see the film during school holidays or on weekends, we would try and target as wide a audience as possible trying to target world wide audience. Our main aim though is too target a young audience, our film would appeal to a young male audience not just girls so it would be perfect for a friday evening go out with a boyfriend or even a group of friends after college, university or school a good thriller that you can watch over and over again attracting different genders, ages and socail groups.

Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

  The distribution of Immersed I think would probably be distributed by New Line Cinema, as it is an unpredictable film and is a Crime solving film I reckon it would bring in a big audience if it was distributed well. New Line Cinema produce many different types of film but the mainly focus on thriller/horror films that bring something different and exciting for example butterfly effect, final destination and lost souls. I think they would be interested in releasing our film as it has an interesting and gripping tale that unwinds throughout the film that would keep an audience gripped throughout. Putting the film on to DVD’s, Blue-Ray and on TV will help us reach an even wider audience, if they feel it’s too expensive to go to the cinema, they would still get a chance to see it at home. We would use marketing ideas to bring in the audience, to help distribute the film, we would do this by using posters on billboards and buses, trailers to tease the audience before the film is realised and use the Internet for wider audiences making are film reach other countries and try and bring in a worldwide audience as well as a British audience.   

Task 2 - How does your product represent particular socail groups

Looking at socail group and who we targetted with our thriller, we look at young teeages who are still in college, it would be put on at times that work round school holidays or even long weekends so that it gave a chance for these students to go one friday evening to go see a thriller. It would be away for people during exams to have time out to go see a film with friends. The other socail group we decided to target was maybe a slight older group, University students, which when they have the chance to have a chilled evening might want to go see a film with a bite. This will give us a chance to reseach different age groups socail and bring in a bigger audience by aiming for these two different socail groups.
Both socail groups are represented in our thriller as we use a young girl for our opening credit scene showing that a young audience would enjoy this as she is a similer age to our target audience.

Task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and converntions of real media products.

Looking at where to put our titles to present the main people behind the thriller, we looked at putting them in places where they would blend in but make sure they could still be seen and read for a certain time. Our opening title we placed as we wait for the scene to unfold, she dives into the title making it wash away as she swims through it this is effective as it was easy to see and read but disappeared when appropriate. The next two titles were placed in similar places, as we used a similar shot which helped us place the titles. This worked effectively as it blended it but was easy to read still. Main of the titles blended into the scene so that they were randomly placed and had meaning and thought behind where they were placed. All these shots in my screen grabs reflect many of the intense shots and moments that were in our thriller the titles added to the opening scene as it keeps the audience gripped to the film as the opening credit scene is so mysterious they want to find out more and watch it unfold. These pictures reflect the weird events that will happened through out.

Immersed Questionnaire

Account of shoot day

Friday the 28^th of January was our shoot day we planned to arrive at Courtney house for about 10 so that meant leaving about 9.30 from Hurtwood to get there on time, we made a shooting schedule of similar shots that needed shooting making it as organised as possible so we could start the minute we got to location making sure we had as much time as possible to get everything we needed and extra if possible giving us a chance to change our story bored if we felt it was necessary we got all the equipment we needed like camera, spider doll, tracks and lighting packed up in the bus and left, arriving to the location on time.  The alterations we decided to do on our storyboard added to our thriller as we tried to create a thrill for the audience, we decided to change the ending slightly making the audience want to carry on watching.

Arriving at location we took all the equipment down to the pool area setting up the appropriate things for the first shot so making sure the camera is at the right angel and that we had looked at the focus, the white balance and lighting around us. We also set up a light behind the camera as well as using the lights in the room and in the pool to make sure we get the best possible contrast from different angles.  Later on we used a tracking shot show someone coming in from outside, this shot gave us a chance to use different equipment to get a better effect through movement. The tracking shot was part of the storyboard when the swimmers dad comes in to tell her its supper but at first you don’t know who it is as we wanted a surprised moment as he stands above the water waiting for her. So with the tracking shot we tried to focus only on the legs and the girl swimming along. This built up suspense for the audience and gave an element of surprise when they find out it’s only her dad, instead of the guy who’s been watching her. This links too many thriller films now and in the pass for example like the strangers, it’s all an element of surprise and suspense for the audience.

We used as simple costume and props as possible so we could focused more on getting really good shots, but making sure everything fit in well for our story line.  We chose a training swim suit for Bethany our main character with a light blue swimming hat and goggles, this all worked well as it showed how serious she was about swimming.  Ted who played the stalker he wore jeans that were slightly ripped and a hoodie covering his face giving no identity, this gives another element of surprise to the audience when the stalker may be identified towards the end of the film. It also gave a difference to the characters and what they were both like.

We decided to use Bethany as she is a slim build, athletic so could cope with being in a pool all day and has had experience in doing swimming for a club which helps with her and doing laps.

Story Board

Loction

The location was at a girl called courtney's house which was half an hour way from hurtwood, so not too far to drive to which was helpful as it meant we would have more time shooting then traveling.

The shot above shows where we filmed the swimmers farther entering, the side we took the photo is where we set up the tracks for the spider-dolly so we could follow his movement. This worked well as we had enough space to set up everything that was needed for this shot.

the pool was the perfect length and depth for our shoot giving us a chance to get all the shots we wanted and needed.

We even had outside space on location that we could place our stalker behind, to get the effect of someone watching her. the windows were perfect as there wasn't too much condensation covering the glass so we could see in and out of them.

Cast List

Name: Bethany Quinn

Age: 16

Sex: Female

Role: Female Olympic swimmer

Reasons for casting: She has a swimmers physique as she was on the swimming team of her old school. She has experience in swimming and acting. She is fit enough to do continuous swimming as she does dance AS. She is comfortable with being filmed in a swim suit. She fits the age we are looking for.

Name: Adam Grant 

Age: In early 30’s

Sex: Male

Role: Father of swimmer

Reasons for Casting: As the daughter is sporty the father may have had a sporty past. Adam has the appearance of someone sporty. He is suitable of age to be a young father. He is also willing to act and has been in previous media videos and therefore has had experience acting.

Final idea pitch for Thriller

We had to present our final idea as a group to the class and what are final plot would be. They liked the idea of using a swimming pool and doing some underwater shots, it would make it intresting and different to other peoples thrillers or horrors as we would use different films ideas.

Plot

-       Girl alone in swimming pool, swimming along.

-       Cuts from different shots e.g. underwater shots or close ups of her breathing as she is swimming.

-       Cuts to POV shot of a hand slams against a window outside the pool.

-       Cut straight back to her catching her breath as she continues swimming, short shot of her feet kicking (doesn’t notice hand against window.)

-       Cut back to hand sliding down glass making a noise.

-       Cut back to girl swimming

-       She reaches the end of the pool to check timer, see how fast she has done a number of laps.

-       Puts timer down, starts swimming again.

-       Door opens, someone comes in

-       Shot of feet walking towards end of pool.

-       Girl about to reach the end again, where man is standing (she hasn’t noticed)

-       Man reaches end of pool standing there waiting.

-       See reflection of man through the water.

-       Shot of her come out of the water towards edge of the pool, she gets a fright.

-       See man for the first time, her dad telling her its dinner.

-       She responds. ‘I’ll be there in 5 minutes dad…thanks’

-       Dad walks out.

-       She gets out of pool, puts towel on.

-       Walks out of pool room (POV shot form outside, someone still watching her.)   



Target audience for Thriller

Our target audience for our thriller would have to be a mature teenage audience roughly 15 and older but we focused more on the young teenagers rather then children or adults, it would not be suitable for children under the age of 15 as the contents of the film may become too violently graphic for young children.

We created an opening sequence that would continue into something dark and twisted, we looked at going a bit further then just your typical Hollywood blockbuster like ‘The strangers and Prom night’  but it still has your ‘typical’ elements of a young boy gone mad and is now stalking a young girl due to jealousy. You don’t have to relate to the characters in the film to feel the uncomfortable and awkward sensation you will feel as you watch the young girl being watched by someone, the fact that she is a swim gives the audience a sense of isolation just to add to that uncomfortable feeling. Our Target audience would have the thrill of being on the edge of their seat as they watch this twisted story line unfold in front of them, this would make our audience want to stay gripped to our thriller to find out what happens.    

My thriller ideas

1.      It would open on a black screen with sound in the back ground of a girl crying and a women asking what happened (like an interview is going on) it then opens on a teenage girl walking down a deserted road with music in the background and heavy breathing over the top. There will no houses, woods or cars just a long road. She is wearing a dress with blood and mud on it and her dress is ripped like there has been a struggle she is still crying with make-up smudged down her face. As she is walking down this road, there will be flash backs of where she has come from but really short shots. She eventually sees this house ahead of her, when she reaches the house she knocks and you hear footsteps coming to the door when the door opens she screams. That will then cut to a blackout and the title of the movie will come up.  THIS WAS OUR SECOND CHOICE, IF OUR FIRST IDEA GOT REJECTED.

2.      There will be an old big house where a young girl will be babysitting two children, both young girls. As she is watching TV she can hear noises, like whispering and crying so she goes up stairs to check the children who are fast asleep, she then goes back downstairs and carries on washing up when she hears it again she then goes back up stairs to check again and both children are gone. When she turns around it blackout and all you hear is a scream. You then have images of one of the young girls on a swing, singing but it keeps changing between the child being happy and then to her with bloody on all over her but she still singing and looks happy. At this point there will be music playing and the main title will come

3.      It will open on a crying girl who’s lying on a wooden floor she has a cut on her head and she’s waking up from being knocked out. We then see a hand with a knife in it with blood all over the knife and his hand; she is crying out for help and trying to get the man to stop. We then focus on her eyes for a while, as she is crying. It then cuts to the title. 

4.      It will open on a man sitting in a rundown flat on a table with loads of pictures of random people walking along the street, coming out of houses and getting on with their lives. He’s sorting through all the pictures and looking through books; hi hands are dirty and are cut. He gets to a certain picture and stops too look at it for a long time, he then picks up a pen and digs into her face like he has something agents her, he then gets a lighter and burns it, he puts it on the table and gets up and walks out we are still focusing on the burning picture on the table and we here him walking out and slamming the door.         

Mood board Thriller/Horror

We had to look at what we felt was Horror or Thriller by using a mood board to show are ideas on the themes.

Mood bored thriller/horror

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Thriller/Horror introduction

When we started talking about thriller and horror films we got shown opening clips from a few different films to get us started, it also got us thinking about our course work projects later on in the term. For horror we looked at holloween, friday 13th and blair witch project. We talked about why this is classifid in our eyes at Horror, we felt that they were all quite gory but also psychological making us jump out of our seats at times. We also looked at some Thriller opening scenes, unusual suspect, seven, dead mans shoes and Don't look now. We classed these as Thriller as we felt there was less gory but gave us a wierd and awkward sensation when we were watching them. We looked closly at Don't look now and how the opening scene try to hint something bad is about to happen by using red as a danger colour we picked up on the ending of the opening scene.

Editing lesson

Our first editing lesson we had to use our own prelim task that we had shot the day before and edit to show by the end of the week, We first of all looked at all our footage to pick the shots that we wanted to use and put them in a bin marked, good shots, we then went through those shots to sort out which shot would go where we then dragged our first shot on to the time line so that we could edit the shot and cut it down to fit in with all the other shots to create a sequence. After a while we started to get the hang of it and it became easier seeing the story line and sorting out what shot needed to go next to complete the sequence. We felt like we had created a simple sequence with some good cuts but this was only the starting point of our editing as it did jump from picture to picture so we needed to work on making it a lot smoother. We also learnt how to cut out some of the sounds in the background so that it would fit with the picture above, this was similer to how you cut the shot but this took more time as you had to listen very carefully to where the cuts needed too be.

Prelim account of post production

Preliminary Task

On the day of the preliminary task we found two students who were willing to be filmed, we gave them the script to learn as we were setting up the camera and deciding what shorts we wanted to do. We put them in order of what worked most efficiently we started with the wide shots of someone entering the room and then worked to close up shots of both characters. We set up the first wide shot, we put two tables together making sure they were steady and then put the camera on top to get a wide shot of the whole room, this worked well as we got a sense of how big the room actually was and it gave us a starting point to the rest of our preliminary task. We then changed the angle of the camera to get our close up shots and other shots that we felt fit with the script. We used lights to create a shadowing effect and to light up the side of each characters face.

Before each shot we had to remember to check that the white balance, focus, lighting and bubbling on the stand so that our shots were perfectly framed. After all the shots we pack away and took our shots to the editing room

Photoshop lesson

Our first Phototshop lesson we learnt all about what different things you can do to a picture just using the tools that are given on Adobe Photoshop CS2. We were told to go out and take some pictures, the idea was to try and take some pictures that were related to the theme horror or thriller. Me, Annie and Bella went out and took some pictures near the woods and in an open space first to see what we could do with natural light to try and make our pictures seems scary. We then decided to look at using lights from inside in a dark room to give off shadows in the darkness. We went into the theatre too look at different levels as well as lighting. We ended up in a bathroom backstage with the only light coming in from behind Bella and being reflected off the mirror and lighting up her face. We used a hood to create a certain look that made the light only hit her eyes and middle of her face. This worked well, giving a scary, mysterious and dark look to Bella. I used this picture because I think the lighting looked the best and I found I could work on trying to make it better.

I used burn tool to blend the background in with the hood that Bella was wearing, making ever merge into the darkness surrounding her. I then went into filter and down to blur to make the photo slightly out of focus but i tried to keep her eyes as clear as I could by using the blur tool to keep her eyes in focus. We also used looking space to show the effect, that someone maybe watching her or the other way round she might be watching someone. This created a story from one picture, making you want to know more about whats going on.

 

First photoshop lesson

First lesson was teaching us all about Photoshop and how we can use it to make posters next week to promote a thriller or a horror film. I had heard of the program we are using for Photoshop which helped me when we started the lesson as I new what sort of things we would be doing using the program. We started off by looking at the 'A team' poster and doing basic things for example cutting off Mr. T's head and copying it on to someone else's body, we then used that to cut a whole person out of the poster and paste it on to another poster creating something different.

I worked on putting Mr. T's head on to an Iron man poster by using the lasso tool to cut round his head perfectly, it looked really effective after working on color and contrast to make it fit perfectly. After starting that we moved on to learning how to make someone look like they have a black eye or really pale using the dodge tool. This help also with blending bright things into a dark background or the other way round. We also talked about layers and how it can be confusing to know which layer you’re on as when your trying to edit something it may not be on the right layer and mess up another layer making the picture look different.

 Our next lesson working on Photoshop we got given a camera between the three of us in a group and we went off around school taking pictures to make a horror/thriller poster, I was with Bella and Annie and we focused more on what we were wearing and where we were setting the pictures. We set up our pictures outside in the woods but also in the darkness of the theatre with a mirror giving us different angles and lighting angles to show a different side to Bella. My favorite picture was when we were using the bathroom mirrors to catch natural light but also Bella's figure in the mirror giving a creepy and ghostly figure. We then went back and focused on editing the background of the picture and amount of blur that is given off. I was happy with my end product as its brought out Bella’s face, mostly her eyes but kept the background a secret.

Camera lesson...

This lesson we worked on film cameras with Matt. He was showing how to use them when it finally comes to our filming day. We used Sony Cameras and tripods and we had to first of all learn how to set up the tripod and then put them camera on top of the tripod.

We got taught all about which buttons do what on the camera,
the first step was how we focus the camera on an object, by zooming in
as close as we could we could then focus on an object, zoom out
again and that would be focused for the whole shot just in case we
needed to zoom in, it would be ready. We also looked at the white balance and
exposure and how we can control that. This was all important
for our preliminary task, as they were the main things we had to look
out for and think about before we started filming.

Then we had to set it all up on the tripod, there were a few things that we had to think about when the camera was on the tripod, bubbling was the main one, if we didn't bubble the camera all of our shots would be talted. We also had to make sure that all the legs of the tripod were on the same level as each other which was also keeping it steady and at the right hight for our shot.

Just a bit about me...

I live near Guildford and have for about 8 years, before I lived in London and then moved when I was about 8 and have lived here ever since. I was at Priors Field school in Godalming for 5 years. I am no studying Media, Theatre and Sociology at Hurtwood House.   


I decide to do media as my sister had a big influence on me as she is studying film and photography at Leeds uni but I always felt it might be something I might like to carry on into Uni or at least be an option. I love all kinds of films but I love horrors or thrillers the most as I like the panic and adrenalin. One of my favourite Horror films is the strangers or Funny games.
My other favourite thing is music it has a big influence on me, I like all sorts of different artists but I'm more into new bands that are not quite main stream yet, for example Little Comets or King Charles.