Group24: March 2011

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Evaluation, The audience

The audience to my thriller would be someone like Mark.

Mark, aged 22 has just left university after studying computer engineering, is now unsure what route to take with his life but enjoys going to the cinema regularly. As he is on orange he is a customed to using Orange Wednesdays and getting a free ticket so uses this to his advantage and goes to see as many films as possible though. He enjoys those who keep him on the end of his seat. Being as he is a student he doesnt have the funds to buy desingers clothes but shops in highstreet shops such as H&M and uses second hand shops to his advantage.

Mark emptied his bag to find....

Not much. Remember, he just finished Uni

EVALUATION 2 -REPRESENTATION

Stereotype - Expected for a man to kill.
Usually in a movie it a very typical of a male to loose his family rather than a women, either the male has killed his family or they have died in a tragic accident.
For example in the stepfather- a man who is a psychopathic serial killer as he murders his family, moves around America then gets with a similar family like his . It is very unlikely for a woman to take on a role like this maybe because women are seen are more vulnerable, offence less than men.

Our Main character is similar to the main in the stepfather as they both look and live normal to the outside world but truly they have mental problems and will focus on actions as murderes towards families .

. In both the openings we are shown pictures of their families . The differences is that in the stepfather we see his dead wife and kids and in Missed we see the familys flashbacks of the joy and happiness although he is grieving them.

Camera shots

Stepfather- lots of Close ups to give a clear view of how the character was being represented.

Establish shot,setting.

Missed - We didnt see many close ups because we wanted the characters identity to be clear.

Establish shot, setting-

Both of the houses look quite expensive giving the experession that the main characters are from a wealthy background not until we see through them.

Mise en scene - similar costumes,- Stepfather and Missed.

similar checked shirt and jeans. Casual mens wear .

The sound in both thrillers are suspensful. In the stepfather we hear the song silent night"sleep in heavenly peace", it refers to his dead family as he has killed them. In Missed there is a Variety of fast and low sounds, we also hear screams of his child playing in the flashback which is very effective as we made this slow so it sounds like an echo.

EVALUATION 1 Form and Conventions

SAW

PRODUCTION IDENT OF THE COMPANY 

WHO THE PRODUCTION OF THE FILM IS BY

MAKER OF THE FILM

TITLE OF THE FILM -

MISSED

PRODUCTION IDENT COMPANY

AFTER THE IDENT THE SHOT IS AN ESTABLISH SHOT WHERE AS IN SAW IS GOES STRAIGHT TO THE PRODUCTION COMPANY .

OUR PRODUCTION COMPANY

MAKER OF THE FILM

WE DECIDED TO PUT TO THE TITLE DURING THE OPENING SCENCE BUT BEFORE THE MAIN CHARACTER IS INTRODUCED WEREAS IN SAW SOME OF THE TITLE SEQUENCE IS BEFORE THE FILM. OUR THRILLER SEQUENECE WAS QUITE DIFFERENT TO AN ACTUAL MOVIE .

Age Certificates are usually shown before movies .No-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Missed

Evaluation, Representation

The main character of my thriller opening followings the stereotypes of most characters in thrillers

Likewise the main charcter in The Step Father does the same. Our characters are represented the throughout the openings of both thrillers

They both seem to wear shirts which instantly connotes sensiblity, clean, wealth and formal which help show their normality to the world even though they have a dark side. This mise-en-scene exagerrates how the character was once a normal person, living a normal life.

Both thrillers were set in a middle class area

However the lighting in Missed didnt continue to be bright natural life which helped connote the normal life of the character, since the shots going through the house had either dim, completely black or red lighting. This made the house seem mysterious and evil which gave a hint to what the character was like before even being introduced to him.

This shot is also edited and sped up to show how the discomfort and absence the character has from the outside world once he is home.

Evaluation - Q1, Forms and Conventions

During lessons we learnt about the structure of many thriller title sequences and how most usually have the same conventions, for example it might be suspenseful, the music may be scary/suspenseful, the titles may be in a specific order (the main/most important characters name/s put first, and then other cast members names following), might establish main characters or location, it could help to establish the 'theme', mood and tone for the rest of the film to come, there may be intertextual references which tells the audience about the genre, and it could include the age certificate.

Our group have not followed all of the usual conventions, but we have followed conventions similar to the opening title sequence of 'The Stepfather'. Although our actual film is very different to 'The Stepfather', for instance, the actual story and aims of the characters ('The Stepfather' has a villain, whereas ours doesn't), it still has similar conventions.

Like our own thriller opening, The Stepfather establishes the location and the main character in the very first shots.

- The Stepfather
establishing shot of location

main character

- Missed
establishing shot of location

main character

Another convention that is used is putting the titles in a specific order; usually having the most main actors name first shown, then the second actors name, the rest of the cast named after and then the people in the technical crew are named. Our opening and the stepfather both do this.

The Stepfather
Cast:
Dylan Walsh - David Harris (main character)
Sela Ward - Susan Harding
Penn Badgley - Michael Harding
Amber Heard - Kelly Porter
Sherry Stringfield - Leah
Paige Turco - Jackie Kerns
Jon Tenny - Jay Harding

'The Stepfather' Opening

Missed

Cast:

Jack Callow - John Harris

Jenifer Molone - Amanda Harris (Wife)
James Hunter - Main characters best friend
Michael Rose - Police Officer

Missed' Opening

(there were problems upload so if there are difficulties viewing the opening, you can view it on one of my other blogs)

The soundtrack for 'Missed' and 'The Stepfather' are both quite suspenseful as they lead the audience to believe something is being left out or parts of it make the audience intrigued to see what will happen in the rest of the film.

The beginning half of the soundtrack for 'The Stepfather' is slow and deep leading the audience into the main part of the opening and making the audience wonder why such music is being played as the main character performs, what seems to be, such a usual daily routine. When the christmas carol Silent Night is played the audience can sense something is not right with the house and the main character and the pace and harmonies of the song make the finding of the bodies more shocking. When the bodies are found there are deeper sounds played. Basically there are added sound effects and music when important things happen and this also happens in 'Missed'
The soundtrack for 'Missed' includes a clashing cymbal-like sound at the end to indicate the change of the characters mental state, just like the bass sound was added once the bodies were found.

Evaluation, Forms & Conventions

Conventions of a thriller title sequence

Suspenseful

Every thriller opening should be able to create suspense from the very start, to create an uneasy atmosphere to make the audience feel more interested in what is going to happen.

Jaws opening scene is a great example of a scene which created suspense by using false plateau. THIS IS VERY EFFECTIVE !

Suspenseful or scary music

Our thriller opening sequence used SUSPENSEFUL & SCARY MUSIC to help build tension for the beginning. This was created on sound track pro and used a repetitive but airy sounds to help make the atmosphere uneasy and not happy and normal

Production company

Idents are used as the first shot of a thriller opening as it allows the audience to know who made the film and how big of a budget was used to film it. Being as we were using college facilities we thought it would be right to use Candi Studies as isn't a high and expensive production company. Such as Screen Gems who made The Step Father.

Titles (in a specific order)

Our thriller opening didn't have all the people a normal film would have in the titles. This was mainly because our footage wasnt long enough to stretch to include everyone. However, if given the chance to re-do this i would make sure we have enough shots to be used to enable all titles are added

This opening from the step father shows how a title sequence should look

Establishing main characters

Close up shot establishing the main character in the step father

At the start of a thriller opening the main characters might be established so later on the audience to recognise them. The Step Father does this by using a lot of close up shots and full body shots of the main character in the opening. However, we as a group chose not to use any close up shots as we wanted our characters identity to not be clear and almost secretive. We did this by filming dull light shots and editing them to make them grey.

Establishing the location

Thriller openings might establish the location that the film would be set at. This is done by using establishing shots which allow the audience to view the entire location at one time. The step father used this to show the show where the film began

For our thriller we used this to show the road where the film would be set before showing a mid shot of the front door

Age certificates

Normally an age certificate would be placed before the ident and opening of the film. We felt our film would be rated a 15 however, we didn't put one at the start of our film after having many discussion abouts whether to do it. We had thoughts like 'Doesnt the cinema make it, not the actually film maker?'

Friday, 25 March 2011

Our Final Diary Entry

As a group we feel that our final version of our thriller could of been a lot better if we had the determination from the start. During the final stages of the makings we were more interested in completely and getting it all done by the deadline that it become to much to handle at times.

Having a member of our group not be as involved as they should of been made us have to rush at the end to make sure we were at a stage to hand everything in on for TODAY the 25th March 2011, but in the end we were able to do it.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and faith given to us to make sure we got everything in on time. *Kisses*

THE LAST DAY

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY OF OUR FINAL THRILLER AND BLOGS. DEADLINE!!!!!

THE MEDIA ROOMS ARE FULL OF STUDENTS DOING THEIR LAST EDITS.

GROUP 24 HAVE NOW FINISHED WITH LOTS OF HARD WORKED INVOLVED EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SHORT OF A MEMBER.

HOPEFULLY WE WILL ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST GRADE POSSIBLE .... I JUST WANNA SAY THANKS TO ALL THE MEDIA TEACHERS FOR THEIR COURAGE AND SUPPORT ESPECIALLY THE DIFFICULTIES !!!