Our Thriller!

Our thriller is finally finished! Editing is complete, and it's finally up on Youtube! 

Here it is, enjoy! 

Task 7: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task What Do You Fell You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product?

The Prelim

to...

The Main Task - Our Thriller: 'Firewall'

Sophistication of Planning

When we were planning to shoot the Prelim at the very beginning of the academic year we had done very little preparation beforehand. We were just given a camera, told the basic functions and sent to the room next door to shoot a short 30 second sequence. We took a maximum of 5 different shot types, set the white balance, put the camera on a tripod and that was that. We hadn't needed to order any props or organize any additional actors, or tell our teachers about why we were going to be gone for the whole day. 

However, with the Main Task our thriller, things were very different. The preparation for our shoot day had started in early december, about a month before the day. My fellow group members and I had a lot of organizing to do to get in all the props on time, organize locations and see which members of staff were available and what times during the day if they were interested in being in our thriller. We had to make sure that we could organize our day around their day so the shoot flowed smoothly with very little complications. 

Development of Film-making Skills

With the prelim task the short story was told merely through the use of dialogue and very little else. The mis-en-scene, editing and camerawork did very little to tell the story. 

Over the course of the year we had learnt a lot about the camera and editing software and we were able to apply this to the final product.  I feel as though my group and I managed to pull off a medium-close to sophisticated sequence that included diegetic and non-diegetic music, camerawork, editing and mis-en-scene that which told a visual story. Before the shoot day we as a group were asked to develop storyboards so that we could gain an idea of what our thriller would look like visually. I found that creating these storyboards did in fact provide me with a much greater idea of what the thriller looked like and should have looked like. Along with the storyboards we also created an animatic using snapshots from the storyboard to give the group an even better understand of what the thriller would turn out to be like. None of this kind of preparation was done for the Prelim at the beginning of the year, which goes to show the huge amount we have advanced during the course of the year with our film-making skills. 

Use of Camera - What Developments Can You See In The Work Produced?

With our preliminary task all the camerawork that we did was very basic and did nothing to portray the message of the story. All the shots were done on a tripod and all from the same height. With this video we followed most of the basic rules of using the camera which were to make sure it was bubbled on the tripod, had the correct white balance, as few zebras as possible and was in focus. 

With our main task we applied all of these rules and developed them with things we had learnt over the course of the year. What we had learnt helped us to know how to tell the story of our thriller through the use of shot types and how different ones can portray different meanings. For example, a low angle shot of someone can make them seem tall and powerful. One particular shot we did for our thriller was the tracking shot of Roy and Alison walking down the basement corridor. To shoot this we placed the camera on the tracks that we had set up in the hall and moved it along to gain a smooth tracking shot of the scene. We had taken a lot more responsibility in the thriller for what each individual shot should look like, and how we framed the shot etc. We also obeyed existing, must conform to rules such as the 180 degree rule, checking the white balance and focusing the camera. 

From the screenshot you can see on the left, we had chosen to frame the shot so that nothing outside the blue curtain set can be seen. To focus the camera we zoomed into the face of our actor and manually focused the camera ring till we got the sharpest image possible. We have also placed the camera at the same height as the actor so that the audience gains a feel of the story being told from his perspective. In the picture at the top right you can see the tracks on the floor which the camera was moved along for the bottom corridor scene. 

How Your Use Of Sound Has Developed

In the preliminary task we didn't use a boom when recording the sound. This meant that we didn't gain a great quality of diegetic sound which took away from the quality of the prelim overall. 

However, for our final project we used a boom which connected to the camera by a wire and recorded all the sound clearly. To get the best quality sound we pointed the boom at the direction of the actors so that the majority of the sound came from that direction. This allowed us to gain a much clearer sound and helped us to produce a better thriller. 

Also in the main task, we used sound effects and created our own soundtrack in SoundTrack Pro whilst editing the thriller. In the soundtrack, we added drum kit tunes along with electronic beats and synthesizers to make the opening sequence more thrilling. We worked hard a long on the dialogue for our thriller, because we didn't want to live much away but we wanted to make sure that the audience knew (sort of) what was going on. We also selected the actors depending on whether they could pull off a believable American accent. 

In comparison you can see there has been a huge development in the use and quality of sound from the beginning of the year where we shot the prelim to the end of the year where we put into production our final piece.

Demonstrating your ability to master new technology in the use of Final Cut and After Effects showing a more sophisticated use of media product than was expected in your Prelim Task

Above are two pictures of the Final Cut Pro software on the Apple Mac computers in the studio in Hurtwood where we editing our thriller. As the development of the editing continued, I learnt about different editing techniques to allow the flow of the sequence to become smoother. One example of this is layering the sound of one clip over the start/end of another. I also learnt how to layer text on top of clips in Final Cut Pro and how to cross fade shots together to create the effect of 'passing time'. When we were shooting our Prelim Task, we had drawn titles on a white board and just filmed them off there. Therefore, an obvious development has taken place in my ability to master technology. 

For the first time when editing my thriller I used a software called Soundtrack Pro. Previously when editing films I had only used the soundtrack or music from other artists. Getting to grips with how to make the music for my thriller sequence at first was very difficult as I didn't understand the layout that appeared on the screen. However, after having tested it for about 30 minutes I got the hang of the product and started to create the music. 

Task 6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Project?

All the technology that we used in our thriller from the electronic props of the computer for the hacker to the editing that consisted of software such as Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Adobe After Effects was provided by the school. The availability of these software products made the job of editing our final piece a lot easier along with being a lot more exciting because we had the opportunity to add in a lot of our own special effects and sound effects. 

Task 5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

How Did You Address Your Audience?

Task 4: Research Into Potential Target Audience

A while we were given questionnaires in our thriller groups to get people out fill out so we could see who our potential target audience was. I went out of school in order to find out from a different set of people whether they would like the idea of this thriller. Not only did I take into the account the opinions of people from outside of school but I also interviewed people of a number of age ranges. 

Friend, Aman Khan (17): 

I asked him what  he thought of the thriller and whether he would go to watch it in the cinema...

"Yeah, it sounds really good. I like the thriller genre and  I think the political and futuristic side to it makes it a lot more  interesting. It'd probably be really interesting to see in the cinema."

Dad, Lee Daley (49): 

"I think this kind of thriller has been done before, and each time nothing more original comes out. I think it's an idea with great potential but at my age you've definitely seen it all before. It's not for me... Unless it got insanely good reviews from critics." 

Little Cousin, Kiran (11): 

"I don't like films like this. They're boring. No one's happy in them! They always have the same story! I don't want to go see in the cinema..." 

These are a few of the people that I interviewed and from what I had gathered it seemed the age range from between 15-25 would be most interested to see the film and these people were of foreign heritage. 

The kind of audience that i imagined would be attracted to this thriller would have (widely) been aged between sixteen and 35. I think that the majority of the audience would have been male but there would also be a fair few females. The film isn't aimed at a rich or poor audience in particular, it's a film that can be enjoyed by all social classes. I believe that the film would be more understandable and intellectually interesting to persons with a highly education. However, it could also potentially be enjoyed by people of less educational standards. I'm a sixteen year old and from a personal point of view I think this sub-genre of thriller is very interesting.

After having watched our own thriller with the audience made up of other media students, we received feedback from three questions. 

1. What do you think the basic plot of the thriller is? 

2. What do you think the key strengths of the thriller are and why? 

3. How do you think this thriller could be made even better? 

Responses to question one: 

"Someone downloaded something bad and then it ruined everyones computers and caused political conflict." 

"Security breach." 

"Conspiracy between the world leaders." 

"Presidents, about to be a mission." 

"Something about the government or the president or America sorting problems." 

"Political story." 

"President... attack of nations." 

"About countries." 

Responses to question two: 

"Editing and music was good." 

"Shots." 

"Good shots." 

"Editing." 

"Good shots of President." 

"Effective close up shots." 

"Nice music." 

"Nice camera angles and sounds are pretty cool." 

Responses to question three: 

"It could be more clear what is happening." 

"More plot, better transitions and credits." 

"Better set design to make the meeting more realistic." 

"I didn't understand it very well as there were a lot of shots of typing." 

"Mis-En-Scene." 

"Too much sound in the beginning, didn't quite know what it had to do with the rest..." 

"Music and acting." 

"Title font wasn't very effective..." 

It seems that from the responses we received it wasn't completely clear what the plot of the opening sequence was. The audience understood the basics of what the film was about but felt it could have been made clearer, particularly through the shots of typing etc. 

From my own point of view, I think that we could have completed the thriller a lot more and made it a lot more believable than it was. I think that the music, mis-en-scene and editing could have been a lot more effective and believable. 

The titles could have been better do and done more to apply to the sub-genre of political thriller. 

Task 3: What Institution Would Make My Thriller?

What Institution Would Make My Film?

I have conducted some research into what film company I thought would like to distribute our thriller. I firstly had a look at ‘Fox Searchlight Pictures ©’ and saw that they had a wide range of produced films. Some weren’t recognizable such as “Best Laid Plans”, released on September 10^th 1999, which cost $7M but only made $27,000. However, they also had some world famous titles such as “Slumdog Millionaire” released on November 12^th 2008 costing $15M but making a worldwide grossing of $377,910,544.

I therefore knew that ‘Fox Searchlight Pictures’ wouldn’t look into our minor project to produce. I continued my research into other smaller companies such as ‘Vertigo Films’, ‘Warp Films’, ‘LionsGate’ and ‘Summit Entertainment’. I found that the best company to produce my film would be, ‘Warp Films’ because they’re a relatively small and unheard of company, which doesn’t attract big name actors or directors and therefore doesn’t produce high budget films.

I believe that ‘Warp Films’ would want to produce and publish our thriller because of a number of factors; it has a great storyline, is full of tension and suspense, and is likely to attract a fair sized audience because of its ‘technological sci-fi’ aspect. The kind of audience this film would be likely to attract would be age ranged between 16 - 26 I believe. They would also want to produce it for more obvious beneficial reasons for themselves, being that if the film was to be a huge success, their producing name would be ‘up in lights’ with the film itself. Therefore attracting more business for itself and becoming a bigger company.

In terms of production Warp Films doesn't create massive budget films. Because our thriller group isn't made up of huge name directors with years of experience and with only a very limited budget Warp Films I fell would be the most likely to produce our film. It would be very unlikely that Warner Bros. would produce our thriller.

Distribution of our thriller would also be spread to cinema companies in miniscule amounts because there are no big name producing companies, actors or directors. A small theatre company would be the most likely to exhibit our thriller to as they look to break even in their first few years of business.

Warp Films have made other films similar to my own such as, Snowtown and Kill List. The targeted audience is typically male but female audiences may also be likely to enjoy these types of films.

After the film has had it’s allowed time in the cinema, Warp Films may then decide to distribute DVDs and BluRays of the film into stores such as HMV to gain extra profit off the film. They may also decide to do a deal with other well-known companies such as Toy/Action Figure distributors and producers. This would help the film to generate more post-release profit.

Task 2: How Does Our Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

Our thriller’s opening sequence consisted of three male actors and two female actors. The male actors are all represented as being, logical, understanding of technology, breadwinners, aggressive, interested in business and politics (obviously because it is a political sub-genre) and dominant. We can see that Roy is dominant over Lesley in the corridor scene as he is asking her questions and she is replying straight away. All the male characters therefore have adhered the male gender stereotype. However, there are some stereotypes that they don’t conform to which are, they’re messy and dirty, sit around watching football and hang out in the pub with mates.

The two female actors in the play are very anti-stereotypical as they don’t conform to many of their ideologies. In our thriller they are assistants to the president, and world leaders so they share many of the same ideologies as the men and conform to very little of their own genders stereotypically written parts. So, they are dominant, understand technology through the use of the webcams in the film, are interested in business and politics and are breadwinners. The women in are film aren’t shown at the beginning to be interested in celeb gossip, doing housework, shopping with girlfriends, or gentle.

All of the characters in our thriller are middle aged or older. This means that age is represented as a position of power as all the characters hold high political positions as the leaders of The United States of America, The United Kingdom, Germany and France.

There is no obvious or intended relation to sexuality in our thriller. So there is no representation from gender of the sexuality of any of the characters apart from the obvious stereotypical physical attributes.

The social class of politics is represented through mise-en-scene as wealthy (suits and ties), and high status (presidential figures). However, the set for the president is meant to be ‘secretive’ which is anti-stereotypical of what you’d normally expect to see with a President, which is the White House or at press conferences.

Most of the camera angles that are used are shot from the same height as the character(s) in that frame. This gives the audience the sense that they’re in the same position as the world leaders, therefore making them feel more involved in the film. The audience then feels as though they are on the same level of social class as the world leaders.

The quick edit of cross cutting between the scenes where the world leaders are getting ready and the president is walking down the corridor give the audience the impression that the social class of the world leaders included a fast passed hustling and bustling lifestyle.

The non-diegetic sound effects used also indicate that there is a lot of tension and pressure involved in the high social class of world leaders.

After the opening title sequence is completed, I believe that the film will go on to show how the United States military mainframe is completely corrupted by the hacker. They government would have no way of restarting the system and after hours of disorganization there will be a full scale attack on the East Cost of America from the Middle East. However, at first the United States will not know who it is that is attacking them. Until, the leader of the terrorist group broadcasts a live message all over the states on national television. At the end of the story, there is no fairy tail, the American Military Mainframe remains heavily damaged and out of use. The attack on the West from the East would have ended for the moment and there would have been much causality along with the American President. The film will end with American attempting to build its systems back up. There will be a sequel to the film too, in order to finish the saga.

Here is a table me and Lavi completed in class together. It shows the stereotypical attributes of the male and female genders: 

Through mis-en-scene, we can see from screen grabs that our media product conforms to the ideologies of what real life and existing media products. 

Barack Obama: Current President of 

The United States of America. 

Danny Glover as the President 

of The United States in '2012' - 2009. 

The other obvious social group that is represented is the 'computer genius' hacker. We have represented this group as a potential threat to the political group and to the rest of the world. We have conformed to the stereotypical representation through the non-diegteic music which builds suspense in the opening sequence. 

Task 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Life Media Products

Task 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Life Media Products

View more PowerPoint from Walts95

Order of Credits

The order of the credits in our thriller follow the same sequence as those in any other film or television program you would normally expect to see. We started with the production company, then the distribution company, director, actors (by most important first), and finally the film title. I will upload the completed product after we have finished editing it. 

An example of a film that follows this title sequence is Forrest Gump released in 1994: 

Use of Fonts and Titling

When editing our thriller, we have added in titles that have fonts that represent the political sub-genre. The titles are edited so that a one letter appears at a time, as if they're being typed. The font is similar to that of 'Times New Roman' which is a common font, but one that works well with our thriller. 

Our thriller is based around the technological aspect of the world through the political sub-genre, which is why we used this idea of editing for the titles. One thriller that ours is very similar to is 'The Ghost Writer', released in 2010. 

As a result of the titles that we have added in successfully, our own production of 'Firewall' is improving. The effect that we want our titles to have on the audience is to provide them with an idea of what type of sub-genre the thriller is. 

Film and Other Openings That Are Inspiring My Editing

When editing I took inspiration from Political Conspiracy Thrillers such as 9/11 documentaries. I feel that the music and fonts used on these are the same kinds that would fit the sub-genre of our thriller. 

I also took inspiration from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Official Trailer

Starting to Edit

When we finally got the chance to look back through what we had shot on our shooting day I really did feel that we had captured some great shots that could tell the audience a lot about what the film was about. 

However, I also thought that we could have captured a lot more footage and that, when looking back over, we didn't make enough out of the time and resources that we had. 

I also felt that a lot of the shots that we had, especially of the wires, were pretty much the same. I think that because we spent so much time on the hacker seen in the server rooms next to the studio, that we didn't have enough time to shoot more of Audrey's scene for example. 

I also felt that we could have done a lot more experimenting with the types of shots that we got and could have played with the lighting and dialogue a lot more too, to make the opening sequence more visually and audibly entertaining. 

Production Schedule

Seeing as we only had one day to shoot our thriller we had to run on a tight schedule. In order to keep everything flowing smoothly, my group and I set up a production schedule of when and where we would shoot each of our stars either together, or in groups.

In the morning we shot Ted's scene in Dave's office from 9am till 10:30am. 

The we shot Andy's Scene in the Spanish Rooms from 10:45am till 11:15am.

Then we had a break form lunch, came back to the downstairs corridor in Hurtwood House and shot the scene between Roy and Alison from 12:30pm till 3pm.

We then shot Roy's office scene in the studio from 3:10pm to 5pm.

And finally we shot Audrey's scene as the French Prime Minister in the French rooms from 5:30pm till 6pm and then the day was finished. 

Different Title Sequence Structures

For our thriller 'Firewall', we as a group have been trying to develop some ideas for how we would like our title sequence to run. The idea that we have gone with is the idea of it being typed onto the screen as though someone is typing it on a keyboard. 

We felt as though it would fit in with the political thriller sub-genre the best out of any of the other ideas that we came up with. 

I also drew inspiration from www.artofthetitle.com for different types of opening fonts, sizes, and colours for how they're represented to fit with the sub-genre of the thriller being created. 

http://www.artofthetitle.com/?s=thriller

After having looked at several of the Thriller Title Sequences on this sight I have decided that a sequence that has the graphic qualities of a computer. This would help to emphasize the political and technological side to our thriller, which we have already emphasized through the mis-en-scene from our shoot day. 

I also remembered a documentary that I had seen on The National Geographic Channel a few years ago on the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, Financial District, Manhattan, New York, NY and I thought that the typing effect on the titles on there were great and definitely added the political, technological aspect to the situation. 

Researching Sound Effects and/or Music

Our thriller is politically and technologically based, therefore my team and I had a pretty good idea of what kind of music and sound effects we wanted to use. We used software whilst editing such as Garage Band and Soundtrack Pro. Firstly Will and I started making the opening suspenseful music using a variety of computer sound effects such as fans, keyboards, buzzes and electro-bleeps. To add the tension we also put in some dark droning. 




I drew inspiration for the sound track from other films that I had seen. I felt that the sound effects and music that were used in them managed to create the heightened tension that I wanted to integrate into our thriller. 


I also got some ideas off this site: 


http://www.yookamusic.com/playlist/soundtracks_suspense_thriller


This the video from Youtube that i also got other ideas from... Unfortunately I wasn't able to embed it! 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2zunbL1QyU