Evaluation Tasks - Charlotte Byford.

Task 1 -

Our media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products throughy various things, such as: cinematography and sound.

The music used in our sequence is very tense and dramatic which is fairly typical for films within the thriller genre. The camera angles and shots we used are very common for thrillers such as: high angles, low angles and panning. The high angled shots we have used create a visual heirachy within the shot as the characters are being looked down on making them seem less important. The use of low angles within the shot is the opposite of the high angle shot. This creates the feeling that we are the viewers are of a lower status and significance within the shot. The way we used panning within the sequence is to give the feeling of being followed or watched which is largly steretypical within thrillers.

Task 2 -

The social group being represented within our film would be that of ballet dancers. In this frame we see two dedicated ballet dancers within a ballet class. These two dancers are working together and are working to achieve perfection. The costume shows how serious and committed to the sport these girls are. 

I have chosen the second example to be from the film 'Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, 2010), this is a picture of the actress Natalie Portman in part of the film towards the begining. This frame shows a committed dancer striving for perfection which is what the dancers within our film are trying to achieve. 

The third example is of a Prima Ballerina from the Royal Academy of Dance. This frame shows the real life benefits of the commitment to the sport. 

Task 3 -

Task 4 -

The audience for our Media product would be teenagers and young adults as the film classification says the film is appropriate from children of the age of 12 and upwards, although children of younger may chose to watch this film but will need a parent to accompany them as it could be considered scary.  The magazine I would hope to carry our movie would be Empire. This is because it is a highly well known magazine, but it is also sophisticated and would be appropriate to mention our film as it would do it in a well formed way. But also the magazine is well known and would therefore create attention to the film.

Review:

The film Infatuation follows the struggle of a group of ballerinas as their teachers obsession with them becomes dangerous. The cinematography used in this film is what truly makes it shine above many of the others in the cinema currently. The plot line is unique considering it's likeliness with other films, which I feel the director has done especially well. The casting for this film is very effective, and creates the desired effect. Overall I feel this film is truly great and would give it a rating of 7 out of 10.  

Task 5 -
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Task 6 -

During the process of making our sequence we used various technologies. Examples of these would be: Garageband, Photoshop, Final cut Pro and HD Video Cameras. 

To edit and create music for our sequence we used a program that came with the Apple Mac computers called Garage band. This program allowed us to create our own music that fits best with our clip. We could chose from various instruments like piano, guitar or harp. We can also play with the beat, tempo, pitch and bass. This program was very easy to use although we as a group found it difficult to sync the music with the video.  

The software we used to create the film poster was Photoshop. Using this program we were able to insert photographs, invert parts, add text and paint over the photographs. Although difficult at the begining we soon got the hand of the program and I feel my skills have developed allowing me to create a poster appropriate to the film genre. 

We used Final cut Pro to edit our sequence. This program allowed us to insert transitions, slow down and speed up sections, add video effects, cut and crop video and add music. This program worked very well in relation to what we wanted to achieve and we found it very easy to use and get the hang of.    

The camera we used was just an ordinary video camera. It allowed us to zoom, and fitted onto a tri-pod. It also let us watch back some of our footage as soon as we had filmed it. We found this camera really easy to use and found it worked well to create nice looking shots. 


Task 7 -
Looking back at our preliminary task I feel we as a group and myself as an individual have developed drastically. We worked well together and since the preliminary task have gotten to know each other and know each others strengths and weaknesses and played to that. We have also developed our understanding and knowledge of the equipment and software we have been allowed to use in creating our opening sequences. In creating our Thriller Opening, we were shown the conventions of a thriller and were advised to watch as many thrillers in our spare time. I feel this has developed my knowledge of what goes into a thriller. In doing all this I feel I am more aware of what a thriller needs to contain that at the begining in our preliminary task. 

1.06.12 
We created our preliminary task which was the first time we worked as our group. Within this task we used over the shoulder shots, POV shots, panning long shots. This was our first attempt at what we thought a thriller movie would contain. The story was that a murder was to be committed, only for the murderer to find their victim already dead. From this clip we were introduced to the software and equipment we would be using within our final thriller opening sequence. 

12.1.12 - 22.1.12
At the begining of our thriller opening sequence project we watched various thriller openings and wrote analysis on the things we thought they had done well in relation to the thriller conventions. Films we watched were: Inception, Vertigo and We are the Night. We did several in our groups and some individually giving us all a chance to work on identifying thriller conventions within other openings. 

30.01.12 - 31.01.12
Our group started to plan for our opening sequence coming up with themes, ideas, characters and even thriller conventions we would like to include. The planning allowed us to create posts with what we found and sharing with the rest of our group our ideas using text and pictures. One of our early ideas was of the setting to be a ballet studio. This idea was one we decided to develop as a group. 

03.03.12
We started filming our test footage and also planning shots and mise en scene etc. The test footage gave us a vague idea of which shots, characters  and settings could work best for our sequence. Certain aspects proved successful within our test footage, such as the bathroom clip and the synchronized ballet dancers. 

10.02.12 - 27.02.12
In our group we discussed all micro elements of our sequence. This included discussing costume and props, camera shots and angles etc. We also created a story board and a precise shot list allowing us to know specifically which shots we will need for our final sequence. This helped significantly as it allowed us to be organized and meant we weren't wasting any time. 


13.02.12 - 21.02.12
We filmed the footage for our final opening sequence. As we filmed our footage during lessons, we had to make sure the area we were hoping to use would be empty and available for us to film. In making sure this was so, we booked the dance studio.  


24.02.12 - 09.03.12
We created a film poster and researched typography and color schemes that could be sued in our credit sequence and titles. We also looked at publicizing of our movie, specifically looking at Social Networking as it relates well with our target audience. 

24.02.12 - 26.03.12
We editing our clips and music using Final cut Pro and Garage band. This involved us cropping, cutting and merging certain clips. We also added effects and slowed down clips. We made a rough cut, which was just the basic clips, without perfect cropping and with little effects or transitions. The class then watched our clip and told us improvements that could be made. This then allowed us to develop our sequence to a better standard for our final sequence. The last thing edited was the title and credits, this giving it a finished feel and made it look more professional. 

ROUGH cut group 28 thriller

editing our sequence

While editing our opening sequence we have encountered many problems to overcome and learnt how to do many new things. When filming our sequence we filmed lots of short and snappy frames and after putting them together on final cut we realised to enable the film to run smoothly we could add in transitions such as 'dissolve: fade in, fade out'. The use of transitions definitely made our film look much more fluent and gave the effect we were looking for. Lots of our clips were also too fast, so we used the 'modify, speed' tool to slow them down, and we think all of our clips after being slowed down flow into each other well and emphasize the thriller genre.

Friday 9 - Today's contribution

Today in class we have achieved many things.
We uploaded shots of the posters on the wall and are now editing them into our main sequence, we also worked on the soundtrack using Garageband. And we also made a teaser poster and a normal poster for our film and uploaded it on to our blog.

What we have completed: We have completed the poster but we still need to finish the music on garageband and complete the rough cut editing for the end of the lesson. 

Film Poster

This is the poster for our film Infatuation. I have placed our title in the center as it obeys the rules of the visual heir-achy. I inversed the text so it appeared white against a black background as it draws attention to the poster. On the poster are 4 pictures of girls, 3 with their faces xed out and the other with a circle around it connoting she is the next victim. The pictures are in black and white half because it relates back to parts of our film. The red x's on their faces also links back to parts on the film as it comes up in the opening sequence. This could be classed as an enigma code.  

Teaser Poster

For our film we decided to create a teaser poster for promotion of the movie. I have used pictures of people n our group because it was most effective to do so as they are young and female. I took pictures from Facebook and took them from different times, for example when they were much younger up until now making it more effective as it shows two of the girls at this age in the film. I have placed the I in the center of the poster to create intrigue as it doesn't tell you what it is about or who is in it. In the real poster we would place a web address and maybe an accolade at the bottom right and a date the film would be coming out. The date would give the audience a time to wait. The web address would allow the audience to search the film and therefore gain more knowledge of the plot line, maybe leading them to a trailer. The accolade would help with showing the standards of the film and who may like it. 

What we still need to finish

So far we have completed all our filming and now we just need to finish editing and create the soundtrack on garage band for our film.
We also need to finish creating are posters for our promotional campaign.

Promotion of our movie

Ways we will get our Movie talked about prior to release-

• 30 second trailer that will be advertising our film on youtube and will also be shown on tv. This will show parts of the film but will not reveal any of the enigmas.

• There will be posters to advertise the film in cinemas, magazines  and on the sides of buses. This will clearly show the actors(star vehicle), director and a screen shot from the film.

• Social networking- Make sure people tweet and talk about our movie e.g #infacturation

Credits and fonts

What will we include.
 Our film title- Infatuation
Starring:
Sophie O'Dell
Chloe Northrop
Charlotte Byford
Filmed By: 
Harvey Mallett
Directed By:
Sophie O'Dell
Written By:
Emma Brand

Possible fonts include- Comic Sans MS,  Georgia, Verdana, Times new roman, baskerville, chapparal pro, cochin

Timeline

Week 1- Friday 6th January we shot and edited our preliminary task.
Week 2 13th Jan- We begun researching the thriller genre by looking at different thriller conventions and looking for them in different film openings and analyzing there opening sequences.
Week 3- 20th Jan- Started planning for our own opening sequences, looking at different settings and stories , brain storming ideas etc + analysis of more films
Week 4- 27th Jan- Location research
Week 5- 6th Feb- Planning for test footage, Evaluation of test footage and looking at inspiration.
 10th Feb- Further planning - Call sheets, Storyboarding and title ideas
Week 6- half term
Week 7- Filming for our opening sequence 20th, 21st Friday 24th Feb- Analyzing target audiences, social groups we portray and review of equipment.
Week 8- Sunday 26th Feb, Analyzing of Thriller conventions used in our opening sequence
Monday 27th Feb-  What we have learnt throughout the process and looking at different magazines we could promote our film into.

What skills we have learnt between doing our preliminary task and thriller

So far we have learnt how to

• Work as a team in relation to filming, e.g One person filming the other zooming. People having to leave the room due to certain shots and mirror problems etc.
• How to film different type of shots 
• Filming in the difficulty of a mirror along the length of the room.
• we have learnt the skill of ballet 
• we have learnt how to work more independently  with the camera.

Online film magazines

We feel that empire is more likely to review our film rather than total film   magazine. We feel this because empire looks more like a sophisticated magazine with formal reviews and more serious colours(red/black) dark colours however we feel that total film is more informal. it uses brighter colours and uses text such as 'No School no rules' which is really cheesy and it seems its more for happier films along the comedy genre, however we feel are film is much more serious then this. 

its hard to find different between the magazines as both are mainstream magazines that review popular films however it does feel one is formal and ones more informal for a younger audience. 

The Women In Black- IMDB

This is a detailed page of the film 'The Women In Black' on IMDB.
The page includes the title of the film, a rating, a short synopsis of the film , who directs the film, the writer of the film and the main stars. It also provides the genre's of the film e.g thriller, drama. Release dates of the film are also given for the country you're in and run time (95min)
It also includes pictures from the film, pictures from the production and the main poster advertisement of the movie.
There's also a link to the trailer of the movie.
You're also given related video's from films like this one.

Individual Contribution So Far

So far within this project I have contributed in a few things. 
I helped with the planning of the story line to our opening sequence and also came up with ideas for the name of our film. I also contributed ideas to music suggestions and the mise en scene within the shots. I also play the role of the protagonist within the sequence this involving bringing the appropriate costume for myself. I also helped to upload our footage onto the computer and helped with editing and filming. 

Thriller conventions and their use within our work

The two conventions I am going to look at are: Enigmas and Micro Elements that Combine in a build up of suspense. 

Enigmas: 

I think our group used the thriller convention Enigmas in a very effective way. From the beginning of the scene to the end we have the audience thinking and asking questions in relation to what is happening on the screen. 

The first enigma created is that of the setting and the genre and how they could be possibly related. This is due to the connotations that come with a ballet studio are very positive. 

The second enigma which is the strongest and more obvious is who the person wearing fully black and watching the dancers is.  This character creates tension as we don't know who they are and why they are standing there. 

Micro Elements: 

Mise en scene - The mise en scene used in our opening sequence works well to build suspense, examples of this are the dancers clothing and the setting. 

The clothing used within the sequence is very important. The 2 dancers wear white tights, leotards and a white top. The teacher wears all black. The stereotypical connotations of white and black are good and bad. Therefore before we even start we get the impression the teacher is bad and the dancers are innocent and good. 

Sound - The sound being used within our sequence is going to be stereotypical ballet music but slow and eeiry. This will create suspense as it will subvert the image. 

Editing - The editing within the sequence will be just straight forward cuts but some will be quick paced to create tension. 

Cinematography - The cinematography within the sequence creates tension as most shots have been positioned so you can't see one person which is the teacher. 

Challenges of the shoot.

The main problem we faced while filming our thriller opening was to be able to film without seeing the camera in the mirror, as most of it has been filmed in front of a mirror. At times we also had to hide in the room so we could not be seen in the shot.

It was also a challenge to keep the main characters in the shot as we were zoomed in and the choreography meant they kept moving out the shot. 

We also found it difficult to shoot the high shot as we couldn't get the camera high enough. This also made it hard to keep the camera still.

It was also a challenge to book the dance studio as there was other people that wanted to use it. As we were filming in there for 2 different days it was difficult to make sure the outfits were the same both days.

Who is your target audience?

The target audience for our thriller is teenagers who are aged 12 and above. It is for both genders but girls may enjoy it more because of the ballet theme. They will have probably watched thrillers like 'black swan' before. Their favorite director could be Darren Aronofsky as he directed Black Swan.

Which social groups are you using in your thriller?

In our thriller we're using  the social groups of Ballet Dancers, the stereotypical image of these is of a controlled dancer with lots of talent and perfect form, they're quite individual people who are artistic and insular.
In our thriller opening we show ballet dancers but in a different type of form, Not so perfect, more of a worried character who is aware of her surroundings,  different from the ordinary stereotype are opening sequence also portrays the image that ballet teachers are that of a creepy character, who look at the people in there class this is different from the normal ballet teacher who is very talented and a proud person.

Another social group we use is that of youth, this is usually portrayed badly as kids aren't seen very well by elder people as we are seen to all do drugs, smoke and drink lots.
In our thriller opening youth is portrayed to be sensible. talented and victimized by the elder generation, this is a completely different image to what's seen usually.

Review of equipment we have used so far.

So far with our  Thriller opening we have used-

• Apple imac
• Sony Camera
• Tripod
• Jewellery box

We have learn how to successfully  use a camera and use different shots with a camera, we have also learnt how to successfully film using a mirror without seeing yourself, we have also learnt how to watch back our clips and view pictures using the camera. 

Pro's

Good quality picture with the quality picture

Steady picture using the tripod

Typing is easier then handwriting 

Con's

A bad thing about the camera is that it can occasionally be quite slow, also you have to worry about battery life as you don't want it to run out while filming. 

Another Con could be that someone could use the camera and delete our footage.

We could forget to press record, turn the camera on.

Title Ideas

- The Obsession - Can't be used as shown in the research as it is already a title
- The Class - Could be interpreted as a school film
- Attraction - Is good but doesn't show the determination of the teacher
- Crazed * - effectively shows the extent to which the teacher will go
- Infatuation * - Shows the fixation the character has and creates an enigma
- Passion - Shows the strength but not effective enough
- Fixation - Not effect enough for the title of our film

Out of the two titles - 'Crazed' and 'Infatuation' the group prefers the title 'Infatuation'.