Evaluation 7

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

When comparing the main task to our preliminary task youc an immediately see that we did a lot more thought into it. We did a lot of research into the issues raised in the main task and made sure they were accurate. We spent a lot more time editing on premiere elements to make sure we had created the correct atmosphere.

After completing the preliminary task we got some feedback on how to improve for the main task. From this we learnt that we needed to improve the lighting, and have a stronger genre and plot.

The main task required a lot more work than the preliminary task, but in a sense was easier as we were not restricted to the type of shots used (180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action) and we were restricted to the story lines, as it had to involve a coversation whilst sitting at a table. For the main task we were free to use any shots and could have any plot we wanted.

For the main task we were much more professional than before. We used a tripod to keep the camera work steady when needed and made sure the acting and editing was done to a higher standard.

We made this film based around something we would enjoy watching, meaning that the audience would be a similar age to us.

Evaluation 6

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


During the process of creating our media coursework i feel i have learnt a lot about technologies used within the media. We used many different forms of media to produce the film including:
-Computers
-Two handheld cameras
-Camera

This is a screen print of the editing software 'premier elements'. Throughout editing our film with were faced with many problems with this software. It would crash several times a lesson resulting in us loosing editing and did not have the specific effects we wanted. We feel because of this our video is not edited to it's full potential, and could be more professional. It also put the film into a format that only a small number of computers recognise. 

When filming we used a  Sanyo Xacti and a tripod to keep jerky filming minimal. The only problem experienced with this was that the zoom was too quick and lowered the quality of the image. 

We also used:

Blogger - to record our work

Paint- to edit pictures

Youtube - to evaluate and distribute

VLC player - to play the film and play the music

Facebook - to ask permission to use the music

Evaluation 5

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is a picture of our typical target audience. We based a film on something we ourselves would want to watch, therefore we also fall into our target audience. The age range for our targeted demographic is 14-18 years old, although arguably we should be targeting it towards the 30+ age group as they are the group who are more likely to have the most money to spend on media products. But young teenagers are limited to things we can do, so may spend more time and money on dvds and going to the cinema. We also spend more time on smartphones and laptops, making advertising very easily accessible.

For 14-18 year olds, the two-step flow is more fluent as it is a very social age range. They will converse about films they have watched and their opinions on them. Many 14-18 year olds watch films to relax and unwind.  

Evaluation 3

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

A production company is responsible for the creation and production of a media product, therefore  we could say  Alice, Bethany, myself, the I.T team and Ms. Hammond has acted like a production company throughout the process of producing an opening scene. Alice, Bethany and myself we responsible for every aspect film, with guidance from the I.T team and Ms. Hammond. 

A distributor is a company responsible for releasing media products to the public. An ideal distributor for our product could be paramount films, distributing similar films including 'shutter island.' We could also distribute our film at a film festival such as 'slamdance festival' or 'screamfest film festival' this is where Paranormal activity was first screened, and being a similar genre and amateur production like ours, would be an ideal place to screen it. 

We view our film as being institutionally similar to Paranormal activity and Blare witch project. This is because both are low budget films, and amateur productions filmed on handheld cameras similar to the ones we used.

Alice, Bethany and myself could be seen as the distributors of the film, as we have showed people it to get audience feedback. We did this through the use of dvd burning and youtube, so youtube could also be seen as a distributor. 

The budget of our film was extremely low, spending nothing on it, just using old clothes and make up was already had. But as we view ourselves as being institutionally similar to paranormal activity,  we would be looking at a similar budget to theirs of $15,000. 

We have not added titles to our film to show how did what, as we all worked together as the production company deserve equal recognition. 

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent  particular social groups?

Lola Gray and the character 'Teddy Daniels' in 'Shutter island' are both based around mentally unstable people with issues they were unable to deal with resulting in the psychological conditions. Although the character in shutter island has a more severe condition than Lola's they both have similar symptoms. There are many differences between Lola and Teddy, we did not base our character on any other characters, we just created her.

The obvious difference between the two characters is the cultural differences. Shutter island is set in 1954 in the U.S.

The differences in both characters in terms of appearence is gender and accent Lola Gray is an English female, whilst Teddy Daniels is an American male. This obviously causes different circumstances to arise during the film.

When creating Lola we tried to create a character as normal as you and I, but because she was neglected in childhood, it shaped her to have a psychological illness. Because of Lolas drug abuse and her poor unstable background, Lola is part of the 'underclass.' Social groups are generally determind wealth, which Lola does not have, leading to her being involved in crime. We see nothing of her interests as she does not have to time or money to spend on them. Lola's life is taken up by simply trying to survive and feed her addiction. We have presented her as a warm-hearted young girl that has been pushed onto the wrong path. Lola has not chosen this life, but has little opportunity to get out of it, it's a vicious circle.

Evaluation 1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 The first frame shows the name of the film, the setting and the main character. The title of the film is Lola Grey and appears at the bottom of the screen. We chose to put it here so it would not totally distract the viewers attention from the main character, but is still obvious within the frame. The font used is a simple, bold, red font, as we did not want to use a font with any connotations of a different time period or genre. Also after researching, we found that many thriller films use plain and simple titles. We chose to colour the title red, as many people link red with anger or blood therefore a hint of the rest of the film, creating a feel of tension and making the audience wanting to watch more.

We set the film in acres of fields, next to a railway and an abandoned farmyard. In the background you can see a worn down building which is used to store farming equipment, which we thought looked scary. By having this in the background the viewer will presume that the building is linked in with the flashbacks. Because the thriller genre covers such a wide area, it does not have a typical setting, but as psychological thrillers tend to have empty secluded space reflecting the mind of the character, which we used that in our film.

Unless the thriller is set in a specific time period, it is not incredibly important how the character is dressed. We dressed Alice in plain dark clothes complying with the dull de-saturated colour scheme, and covered her with mud to show her struggle. We also put ketchup on her representing blood. We used hair products to make her hair look messy and greasy, implying that she has not been able to wash.

In the first second and third shots we used a tripod enabling us to capture steady shots. For these shots we used a wide shot. We only used one shot to show continuity and emphasise that the other frames were flashbacks. When filming these shots we tried to use the zoom setting on the camera, but as the zoom has a set speed we found it zoomed out to quickly and was not very steady, resulting in us having to slightly change the way it was filmed to still get a professional look.

For the rest of the frames we used handheld so the shots would shake a little, implying that Lola was shaking from fear. Also by using a handheld camera is makes the viewer feel as if they are expiriencing the same things as that character, and is typical of a psychological thriller.These shots show the character in more detail, this builds a relationship between the viewer and Lola, and does not jump into a film with a character who the audience know nothing about. By showing the character from afar in some shots and close ups gives the viewer to build up a good profile and form an opinion on Lola.

The third and fifth frames show flashbacks. Because this setting is totally different to the others, a distinction between tenses can be clearly made. He movements show she is struggling and constantly thinking. The setting is dark and claustraphobic, so it uneasy for the audience to watch. There is also a big contrast between both settings, going from a wide open, relatively light space, to a small dark room inside.

The fouth and sixth frames show Lola rocking backwards and forwards; this shows her nervous distposition and is also typical of psychological thrillers. The eighth frame is an extreame close up of Lola's face focusing on the emotion. It is uncomfortable and claustraphobic for the viewer to look at.

For the seventh frame we used a completely black screen. This shows complete darkness and builds up tension for the viewer as they do not know what is going on, leaving the viewer wandering what is happening to the character. The next frame is an extreame close up of Lola's face, which appearing after complete darkness will stay in the audiences mind.

In conclusion, we felt that we have used used typical factors of a psychological thriller making the genre more apparent, and making it comparable to other thrillers.

Audience feedback questionnaire

We asked ten people to complete our questionnaire after watching our film to help us review our work. The people who completed the questionnaires ranged more in age than the people who we asked to complete our previous questionnaire; this was because we want to compare the different opinions of our target audience and extended target audience to see whether they’re similar. Thriller films tend to attract a wide audience so it felt appropriate to ask the opinions of different ages.

We also made sure we chose people whose answers wouldn’t be bias by answering the highest, just to be friendly, since we wanted accurate results to get a clear idea of the audience’s opinion.

Question 1. What is your gender?

                        Male                            Female

This basically allows us to understand whether there are any correlations with a certain sex with their other answers as sex tends to influence their opinions.

Question 2. What age range do you fall into?

                        Under 14          14-18               19-25               26-35               36+

As you can see we didn’t ask any under 14 year olds or any 26-35 years olds. It happened by chance that we didn’t ask any 26-35  year olds however as we managed to get the ages above and below it shouldn’t make much difference to our results as they’re reasonably close age groups. Our thriller film isn’t really appropriate for under 14 year old audience so therefore their opinions aren’t valid for our review which is why it doesn’t make any difference to our questionnaire results. The 14-18 year old age group are our main demographic which makes their opinion more important for our feedback. For this reason the 14-18 age group were the majority who answered our questionnaire. As previously said we wanted to know the opinions of a wider age range as despite having certain demographics for our film other audiences tend to watch thrillers also.

Age is an important influence on people’s opinion so for that reason too we wanted to make sure we asked more than just one age group

Question 3. With 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, how well do you think the film meets the conventions of the thriller film?

1          2          3          4          5

The fundamental conventions of a Thriller films are intense and thrilling plot, often based around a single character; without these basic conventions our film couldn’t be called a psychological thriller. This question not only lets us know whether our film has met these conventions but also indicates people’s opinion on whether our film is successful or not. Most people answered 4 indicating that although the conventions weren’t noticeable the best they could have been, they were still strongly recognised by the viewers. However this is a reasonable response as we are only able to show two minutes of the beginning to a film so not much progress can be made. One person answered 2 which is disappointing and shows us that there’s certainly room for improvement. Bearing this in mind we asked in the final question what improvements could be made.

Question 4. How well do you think the film meets the sub-genre of psychological thriller?

1          2          3          4          5

For our film to meet the sub-genre of a psychological thriller we had to clearly show psychological elements that involved the character’s mind. We used flashed backs to do this and from our results this turned out very successful. Half put 4 and the other half put 5 which means that the character’s mental thoughts were recognised. Therefore we successfully achieved the psychological sub-genre.

Question 5. How would you rate the plot?

1         2           3           4         5

 The plot is the main part of a film, so for it to be a successful opening, it must be a good plot.

  For this question we used a scale of 1-5 for the respondents of the questionnaire to rate the plot. By doing this we get an insight of how good or bad the audience think the plot is. By looking at the chart we can see that there are mixed reviews about the plot, but the largest amount of people thought that the plot was good, giving it a 4 or 5.

Question 6. How well did the plot captivate you and make you want to keep watching?

1        2        3        4         5

By asking this question it allows us to see if our introduction was successful in engaging the audience’s attention. Our whole project is based around the plot. What is the point of the film if you don’t like the storyline?

From this feedback we can see that our plot worked well. We were given all 4’s and 5’s therefore the film fulfils its purpose.

Question 7. How would you rate the camera work?

Camera work was one of the things we decided needed to be better. Before our preliminary task we’d never seriously operated cameras before so it was a challenge.

This feedback clearly shows that our camera work is good, 4’s and 5’s show that it is better than average even.

Question 8. How would you rate the choice of setting?

The setting is a restriction we have, we can do it anywhere, but practically, it can only be within the Peterborough area. However the graph shows that our choice of setting was good. Some people think it could be better, but no one thought it was below satisfactory.

Question 9. How would you rate the film overall?

All 4’s and 5’s is an excellent result. There is room for improvement, but it shows all our viewers were happy. This also shows that we targeted the right audience.

10. Is there anything you would improve?

This is an open ended question because we wanted individual people’s opinions.

Some answers given are:

“Build the viewer into the plot – they are left wondering a bit too much”

“Better setting?”

“Longer flashbacks, less transitions between”

“Be more descriptive about the plot t the viewer”

Other than these, we were told we didn’t need improvements. This is all helpful feedback. It’s clear we needed the plot to be more apparent, though we found this difficult as we were just doing the opening. In hindsight we also agree that the flashbacks aren’t long enough, making the transitions a bit too frequent.  

mise en scene

Our aim was to create an eerie, dark scene which had an aire of mystery. In order to achieve this, we decided to film on a day with a little sunshine, so that we could still have a clear picture, but on a day with a little cloud so there was not too much colour. Typically thriller films have very de-saturated colouring so we wanted to show this as much as possible, we also edited it to make the colours greyer.

We picked a windy day to film so that our actress' hair would blow in the wind. Wind adds to the mood because it makes it seem colder, coldness is associated with unhappiness and fear. It also adds to the aire of mystery.

Our setting is a farm track by a building that stores farm

Shots

This is the list of shots we've planned on using when filming our project, we wanted to decide before hand so we knew what we were doing at the time of filming and therefore wouldn't waste time. As we have two settings we decided to film all of the clips for one setting at the same time, this would help us to avoid any errors regarding continuity by weather, lighting and match-on-action.

Outside shots:

 Begin with an establishing shot of the location, including track, hill and fields. This introduces the audience to the scene and shows that it’s in a rural, quiet place unlike a busy city.
Continue into a long shot following Lola walking towards the camera, the camera should be stationary. This long shot gives the audience the chance to study Lola’s appearance by her clothing and her movement. We will use this one shot of Lola walking forward and then edit flashbacks into it as this will keep continuity and match-on-action.
When Lola has fallen on the floor use a close up (/mid-shot as she rocks backwards) on her face to give the audience a clear view of Lola’s facial expressions this should help provoke them to judge or predict what has happened to her and what will happen in the film.

Flash back shots:

A close, long shot of Lola on the floor showing that she’s struggling to get free. The long shot shows gives a whole body shot of Lola so that the audience can establish that she’s got her arms and legs bound. This gets the audience think about how she has got there and why. It needs to be quite close to Lola so that the audience can focus on her and not so much her surroundings.

A mid shot of Lola by the door as she realises that she’s trapped. The audience will get a closer view of Lola’s facial expression and will also get a clearer look at her clothing. The audience are given the chance to study her appearance and her weak condition.

A high angle shot from behind, above Lola whilst she’s curled up on the floor, this makes her look vulnerable plus it will be like the audience are looking over her themselves. They are given a clear shot of hands bound together so can summarise that she’s there against her will.

Another long shot of Lola on the ground similar to the first one but this time she is moving a lot more showing her desperation to escape.

Another high angle shot of Lola but this time from in front of her whilst she’s unconscious. The audience will notice that she’s unconscious and will provoke them to feel pitiful towards her and question why she’s unconscious, who’s put her there, what have they done and why have they done this to her?

A long shot of Lola sitting up to show her slow, drowsy movement. Again this will need to be quite close up to make the audience focus on Lola.

An extreme close up of Lola’s eyes as she wakes up and takes in her surrounding. As she doesn’t know where she is her eyes begin to dart around exaggerating her panic. The audience will pick up on this and will again feel sorry for her. The audience will also notice her black, beaten eyes and messy hair and will make assumptions that she’s been beaten.

filming

Before filming we wanted to check the weather conditions as the weather is a vital part in setting a scene and mood. We wanted to film in bleak conditions for it creates a negative and dark setting which would be appropriate for a thriller film. It will hopefully make the film more tense which is a main concept of thriller films.

This was the weather forcast when we filmed on the Sunday, however despite it showing sunny conditions the weather when we filmed was rainy and miserable. We wanted to film during the day as we wanted it to be light enough so that the filming wasn't too dark like on our preliminary task. We also liked the de-saturated effect it gave to the filming as it made it look more grim. It was also very windy which added effect to the girl looking messy and dirty.

In our outside shots we want to use the wind symbolically; we want the inside shots which are close and claustrophobic to contrast with the windy outside shots so that it feels like a breath of fresh air. This will hopefully help to make it obvious that she's escaped.

Preparation

We wanted Lola to look dirty and beaten so we used makeup to create these affects. Blackened eyes give the perception that Lola is drained of energy or has been beaten which we want to be acknowledged by the audience so they can guess the possible plot. We used different hair products such as serum to make my hair look greasy; Lola would need to look dirty as if she’s been captured for a while and not washed.

We smudged the mascara around Alices eyes and down her face so it would look like Lola had been crying in a possible struggle with her capturer, this again was something we hoped the audience would pick up on and think might have happened.

Alice wore some old clothes knowing that she would be getting them muddy plus we wanted Lola to look quite urban; therefore she wore plain tight jeans and a graphic plain top with a leather jacket. Using plain toned clothing meant that the clothes wouldn't stand out too much keeping the audience’s attention focused on the acting rather than the clothing.

The easiest way to make Alice dirty was to simply cover her in mud. In the plot Lola has escaped in this muddy setting so to make it realistic she would have struggled around in the mud. She would also have gotten grazed or bloody whilst escaping so we used tomato ketchup on her clothes and hands to act as blood. We used tomato ketchup as it a vivid red against the dull setting and tones of my clothing. The blood could imply a violent struggle to the audience and keeps them guessing what has happened.

These pictures of the location were taken before filming; we took them when it was dark to show the eerie feel that is created. We wanted an eerie setting as Thrillers are tense and uncomfortable to watch. However when we uploaded these pictures it was too dark for our project to be filmed as it is barely visible. It is a clear setting with nobody around (apart from some horses which wouldn’t be included in our shots anyway) which adds to the loney, eerie atmosphere.

It’s not a very clear picture but it shows a barn which is the nearest building to where we’ll be filming. It is quite a frightening looking building as it is rusty and run down giving the impression that it isn’t looked after. Thriller films often use run down or empty places as they’re deserted and don’t attract people’s attention. As it will be visible in our film it gives the audience a place to link to with Lola being captured and believe that Lola was captured in this building. However because it’s not accessible to us we weren’t actually able to film the flash back from inside the barn, plus lighting might not have been efficient.  



This is another barn that will be included in our shots adding to the rural features of the location. This barn looks less ran down that the other one and therefore doesn’t look as creepy. Because of this we chose to include a closer view of the other barn so that the audience could link to this one more.

Editing

The editing process started off quite easy, we knew what we wanted to achieve. As we progressed it became much more difficult - the software we used was very temperemental, it was very slow and kept crashing. We also had difficlty finding the tools we needed on the programme. In places we wanted more lighting than we've achieved, but we couldn't find a tool that did enough without losing quality. We also would've liked to make the film look to be of a higher quality, the picture quality isn't great and the zoom on the camera does not allow you to zoom gradually so it would've been good if we could edit that. We edited our film as best we could and we think it works quite well, considering this is only the second time we've filmed and edited.

Music

When choosing sound for our opening we had originally thought of using non-diagetic sound like a heartbeat, this would have been used to dramatise and add tension. However the problem with this was actually having access to the sound as it would be difficult to record plus we didn't know where we would find a pre-recorded file. We also thought of using diagetic sound by having Lola whimper and scream which we thought would be especially effective used in flashbacks. The problem we found was that when we came to filming the sound of the wind was too loud for any diagetic sound to be heard and therefore only left us with a choice of non-diagetic sound. We decided that the best suited non-diagetic sound for our opening would be to use a piece of pre-recorded music/ soundtrack. Because we are only filming the opening we wanted a soundtrack that wasn't too busy which lasted too long. After looking at other film openings it was noticeable how the majority of them used an instrumental soundtrack but as we didn't have the time or resources to record a piece of music we searched through some of the bands we knew for any instrumental or interlude songs.
We hoped to achieve a negative, distressed mood to our opening so we looking for songs which were played in a minor key. Whilst searching we came across Emarosa, a rock band from America, who used quite a few instrumentals in their albums. We found that the song 'Even Bad Men Love Their Mothers' would suit our opening film well so we asked them on their facebook account for their permission to use it.


The song we have decided to use starts of slowly and is only instrumental, it gradually builts up slightly which we thought appropriate as it reflects the build up in our opening. There are points when there are slight vocals that sound distant and aren't clear, this should help create an eerie atmostphere for the audience. It is also good for it is exactally two minutes long which will fit in with the time of our opening.

Storyboard

Review

      Our original plot involved Lola Gray actually being kidnapped and focused on her being captured and tied up. When coming to film, using the altered script, it seemed to work well, however when we later reviewed the film we couldn’t match the clips and we felt the acting wasn’t satisfactory. Therefore we decided to further alter the plot, choose a different actress and change the setting.

            Changing the setting was mainly due to it being more available for our use and it fitted in well with our new plot. As the majority of the opening would have to be filmed outdoors we decided to choose somewhere rural quiet where there wouldn’t be other people around. We chose a muddy lane behind some houses, this gave a rural effect but also showed that the location had civilisation as the plot involves Lola living outside of London.

We changed the plot to focus on the character’s escape and to use flashbacks of the character being captured, this lets the audience get an insight of Lola’s thoughts- emphasising the psychological element of our genre. Another adaptation to our plot was Lola having schizophrenia. Now the whole plot is based around Lola’s mental battle between her past and the present. The film would be from the view of Lola and would show what she’s imagining and believing to be true rather than what is happening in reality.

It was difficult trying to find someone suitable for acting in our film as we didn’t want to experience the same thing twice and to have to start from the beginning again. Ultimately we weren’t able to find anyone who wasn’t in our group and as we were restricted on time we chose to use Alice to play the part of Lola.

With the script we wanted to have something which allowed the actress to be flexible and improvise since we had difficulties trying to stick to the script when previously filming. For that reason we decided to use a basic script which included the key elements, like the movement of Lola and what shots we would use.

Research

To ensure our film was accurate, we decided  to research into some of the main features of the opening.

Schizophrenia- A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations (most commonly hearing voices), delusions (often bizarre or persecutory in nature), and disorganized thinking and speech. The latter may range from loss of train of thought, to sentences only loosely connected in meaning, to incoherence known as word salad in severe cases. Social withdrawal, sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgement are all common in schizophrenia. There is often an observable pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness. Impairment in social cognition is associated with schizophrenia, as are symptoms of paranoia; social isolation commonly occurs. In one uncommon subtype, the person may be largely mute, remain motionless in bizarre postures, or exhibit purposeless agitation, all signs of catatonia. Late adolescence and early adulthood are peak periods for the onset of schizophrenia, critical years in a young adult's social and vocational development.

Child abandonment-Child abandonment is considered to be the leaving of a child on his or her own without any intention of returning to ensure their safety and well being. It is something that is considered to be among the most serious of offences a parent can commit in relation to their child. Child abandonment is normally discovered if a child or children are left alone for a long period of time and are observed to be behaving in a manner not normally befitting of their behaviour. This may include the children wandering around the area in which they live at peculiar times, asking others as to the whereabouts of their parent or indeed – as is often the case – children misbehaving or causing trouble in order to seek attention.




homelessness-Causes of homelessness: Poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence,  mental disorder, disability, lack of accessible healthcare. 




drug/substance abuse-Depending on the actual compound, drug abuse including alcohol may lead to health problems, social problems, morbidity, injuries, unprotected sex, violence, deaths, motor vehicle accidents, homicides, suicides, physical dependence or psychological addiction. Drug abuse, including alcohol and prescription drugs can induce symptomatology which resembles mental illness. This can occur both in the intoxicated state and also during thewithdrawal state. In some cases these substance induced psychiatric disorders can persist long after detoxification, such as prolonged psychosis or depression after amphetamine or cocaine abuse. A protracted withdrawal syndrome can also occur with symptoms persisting for months after cessation of use. Benzodiazepines are the most notable drug for inducing prolonged withdrawal effects with symptoms sometimes persisting for years after cessation of use. Abuse of hallucinogens can trigger delusional and other psychotic phenomena long after cessation of use and cannabis may trigger panic attacks during intoxication and with use it may cause a state similar to dysthymia. Severe anxiety and depression are commonly induced by sustained alcohol abuse which in most cases abates with prolonged abstinence. Even moderate alcohol sustained use may increase anxiety and depression levels in some individuals. In most cases these drug induced psychiatric disorders fade away with prolonged abstinence.