Evaluation Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Kellie Ward

A media representation is the way in which the media regularly portray a certain type of person or group of people. This can derive from gender, social class, ethnicity, age, or social location. 

As there is just one character featured in our thriller opening, we were representing a very specific social group; It was female orientated, of a middle domestic class,

Evaluation Q.2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Kellie Ward

Representation is... the way in which people/a group of people/social organization is portrayed, and the media does not always reflect true reality; it instead moulds these things in a way that is subjective to their specific media text and therefore emphasises true reality and creates a stereotypical view on the particular person/place given (e.g. Tv drama exaggerating masculinity - Life on Mars).

The main areas which are represented by the media are:

Ethnicity

                                         Social class

          








Ability/disability                                                         Gender

                      Age                                                                                                    Regional identity

Sexuality 

The stereotypes that we represented in our film opening are gender (female), age (young), social class (working class), and ability.

Evaluation Q.4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

The general wide audience for thriller films is young adults-adults, most from which start from 18 years old because of age restrictions and psychological affects. Thrillers in general are not gender specific
Our target audience is of ages 16-35


The audience specific to our sub-genre (mystery thriller) 

(Created by Wordle)

Final blog

This is the last blog i'm going to do, i have learnt a lot from the begining right through to the end and I hope you enjoy the final product which you can view on VIMEO: 

PATHOGEN GROUP8!!!!!

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

To sum up the whole production and editing process, I'd say that I have been enlightened about all of the different forms of technology involved in piecing together ONE final piece. We required different digital technologies for things such as audio (Camtasia voice-overs, attachable camera microphones), video (lighting, JVC Camera, editing effects)

Q3 - Evaluation

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

Although we didn't put Warner Bros into the title sequence for Pathogen we think that if we had a chance to go back we would use it. The production and distribution company we have chosen is Warner Bros. This is because we think that our thriller is a Hollywood film and needs a lot of funding since its about a disease that affects people worldwide. We want it to be distributed globally and we feel that the plot has the potential to dominate the biggest cinema chains. 

We need a large budget because we are going to have to use a lot of different locations which have to be blocked from the public which costs money.

Also we need the make up to look realistic because if it doesn't it will look like an amateur film. Furthermore we also need the best actors and actresses to make it look realistic, the more realistic it looks, the more its going to engage the audience.

Q4 - Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Through my research i have found that the wider audience for thriller films are either 15-30 or 18-30 depending on the film's content.

Above is an example of someone who would fit our target audience which is 15-30. We chose the    minimum age to be 15 because there are a lot of other thrillers with this age rating. One thriller we chose to focus on is Contagion(which has the same sub genre as pathogen which is mystery) because our film has a lot of intertextual elements from it and the plot is similar.

The girl above is 18 years old and as you can see from the likes she likes a lot of common things teenage girls like but she is also interested in crime, mystery and thrillers.

Evaluation 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is a very big part of film and TV. Different groups are represented in different ways with different messages brought across. In our thriller opening there isn't really a strong example of representation, however, you could say that our thriller represents the general population of the UK as it is set in the UK and shows the vulnerability of people regular, un-vaccinated who come into contact with a water-borne disease.

We have represented the general population of the UK in a positive way; the NHS staff were helpful and efficient and there was a voice-over of a man who was very worried about his mother; this shows the caring attitudes of many people of the UK.

We did have an idea that didn;t make it into the final cut; we were going to show a conversation between government officials who were trying to cover up the disease and accept no responsibility for it. This represents the elite of the UK in a negative light and represents the distrust that many regular people of the UK have for them and is reminiscent of what we often see in real media (e.g. on the news, internet and in newspapers).

Q6 - Evaluation

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

             

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

Looking back at our preliminary task, I feel that we have learnt so much more on how to create a visually interesting media product. At the time we did our preliminary task, we had no real previous experience in creating a media product from scratch. We had done a re-make of collateral, but when it came to creating something completely new, we were completely clueless and new to the experience.

However, the preliminary task was what gave us the experience to go on to create our thriller opening. We learnt more about camera angles and techniques (e.g. Dolly-zoom), mise en scene (e.g. how to do make-up). Our location was a lot better and fitting to our storyline (unlike in our prelim where we just used the only space that was available to us). Even small things like lighting made massive improvements from our preliminary work to our final thriller opening. All these things contributed to making our thriller opening much better and more professional-looking than our preliminary work was.

Also, from our preliminary work to our final thriller opening, we got a lot better at editing (e.g. got better at match-cutting and the 180-degree rule which didn't really work out in prelim due to lack of space in our filming location), and learnt a lot more about techniques in Final Cut Pro and how to edit footage effectively and creatively (I feel our prelim was just standard editing to piece footage together without any real creativity involved). In our preliminary work, we did not add any sounds, we just used what was in the footage. However, in our final thriller opening, we learnt how to use Soundtrack Pro to add sound which makes the media product a lot more professional-looking and interesting for the audience.

At the time of our preliminary work, we also had no knowledge of title sequences, which are of course integral to any film opening. However, once we started our thriller opening, we had learnt about title sequences (e.g. the conventional order of the titles) and knew how to creatively and effectively create a title sequence to add into our footage.

I also feel that our thriller opening is a lot more creative than our preliminary work; we learnt how to create more interesting storylines using storyboards, and although I feel we had very little time to come up with an idea for our thriller opening, it was a lot more well thought-out and interesting than our preliminary storyline was.

Evaluation 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the production of our thriller opening we have used many technologies from camera equipment to computer programs.

The main computer programs we used were Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro. We used the technologies in combination with each other to construct our film opening. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the footage, and Soundtrack Pro to create the music. We then used Final Cut Pro to layer the music on top of the footage.

I learned may things about both programs, here are some of the things I learnt about Final Cut Pro:
- Has high-quality rendering which makes it possible to compute realistic effects.
- Has iMovie support, the two programs are very compatible.
- You can imported layered Photoshop graphics (good for titles).
- Auto-Analysis uses people detection to determine if there is a single person or multiple people in the shot. This information is used to automatically organize shots into Smart Collections. The program then flags shots as close-up, medium, or wide, then organizes them into Smart Collections by type of shot.

- Analyses your media in the background to identify shaky footage. You can then apply the Stabilization effect. For additional control, you can adjust parameters manually.

- Gets rid of image distortion from quick movements. Can automatically make corrections.

- Can analyse the colour of clips on a frame-by-frame basis to produce superior results when you use the single-click Balance Color feature. The color correction is optimized for the specific frames you’ve selected.
- Can analyse and fix audio problems e.g. excessive noise.

My conclusion about the usefulness and creativity of technologies is that the technologies are useful in allowing you to be creative when creating a media product. Without these technologies, we would not have been able to create our media product, and because the technologies were so useful, we were able to show creativity and make our media product how we wanted it to be. However, sometimes the technologies are not always easy to use as they are very complex, professional programs which are quite hard for a media student to figure out how to use by themselves without never being shown and having no prior knowledge of the technologies. I found this the biggest struggle when using the programs. Also, sometimes you are limited a bit on exactly what you want to do and are not always in complete control of what your media product is going to look like, for example, you cannot just create your own imaginative transitions, you have to choose from whatever is available in Final Cut Pro, and in Soundtrack Pro, you are limited on what the music will sound like as you can only choose from the sounds available in the program.

Q7 - Evaluation

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

           

Evaluation 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience with the name of the film; Pathogen as it is short, snappy and catchy and we felt that this would make it attractive to a teenage/young-adult audience.

We also used mise en scene to attract our audience. The clothes that the main character wore were just normal, average pyjamas that a regular teenager/young-adult watching the film would likely wear. This makes the film feel 'normal' and makes the audience feel like they can identify with it and feel like it mirrors their own lives, which would make it appealing to them. The same goes for our location; it is a normal London house, not a gigantic Hollywood mansion that many of our viewers would not be able to identify with.

The main character (who was the only character in our opening) was a normal English teenager, much like our audience would be. Again, they would be able to identify with her normal life, making the storyline more shocking when she collapses due to the very abnormal water she drinks.

Our rough-cut feedback helped us to improve our film in order to give it better appeal to our intended audience. As a lot of the people who gave us feedback were representative of our target audience (English teenagers/young-adults), it was particularly helpful because they gave us feedback on what they would like to see and what would appeal to them. Their feedback was extremely valuable information and we took it all on board and added some improvements to our final cut of our thriller opening.

We have reached our audience through word of mouth because I feel that there is nothing more valuable than that; if you are recommended something by a friend, you are much more likely to try it out than if you were told to by a pushy advertisement or Facebook page. Word of mouth makes the advertising personal, and friends know what other friends like and so a recommendation makes all the difference. Also, I feel that this is the best way to specifically target our audience because if there is one thing teens and young-adults all collectively like to do, it's talk. Teens and young-adults talk all the time about everything and so films are often the topic of conversation with this age-group, and talking spreads like wild-fire.

Evaluation - Q7

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

Over the filming process, we learned how to: use a camera and miscellaneous equipment; use Final Cut Pro to edit our footage; create non-dietetic music using Soundtrack Pro and create idents using Motion.As a massive fan of conspiracy thrillers – my favourite films being Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Trilogy – when looking back to the planning process, it was easy to think of an action-thriller scenario. However, I wanted to step out of the generic norms held by the majority of modern action-thriller films and add a mystery element to our opening. Having seen Contagion recently, I thought the conventions of a medical emergency film made this newly profound concept of mine bold and interesting – the outbreak of a deadly virus from the city’s water system. Also linking to our research - we  used a convenient location e.g. Cara's house as oppose to using a shady location commonly used in horrors. It was easily accessible, relatively close to the college and big enough to film. 
Though pre-production for this film was simple, there were many flaws to it. Switching on a camera may be easy but achieving continuity was definitely a challenge. We had to ensure we made a five-second-gap before/after capturing dialogue or movement. There was also the tedious process of filming the same scene two or three times over – something we failed to do for our pre-lim. Looking back at our pre-lim, our picture was delayed and we missed out the top-third of Deborah's face, on occasions. There was also missing sound and the short spray of light-exposure at the beginning of each shot which made life difficult. However, considering the fact we had one lesson to film this, it was adequate enough to present to our peers. Furthermore, we learned from our mistakes and amended a great deal of our filming techniques. However, though some would argue that one of our shots was out of focus, this was deliberately done to reinforce her ill-state. 
Composing the storyboard, unlike the challenges of the pre-production, was a more successful task – Cara’s house was the ideal location. We had thought of a vast range of angles and shot types, for example, wide shot, match-cut and extreme close-up Our uniques shot, however, was a first-person POV. We added the video-effect 'Earthquake' to make the shot look surreal. On the other hand, when it came to shooting the rough-cut, the lighting was extremely poor due to the adverse weather conditions outside: the top light only made it look cosmetic. We were able to amend this by re-filming large chunks of the opening. Even though this gave us less time to edit, we still had something presentable to import onto Final Cut Pro. I also think the constructive criticism for our rough-cut was far too nice: critiques thought the concept was good, the shots were acceptable, meaning that the film was fine enough to present without sound and titles although when it came round to editing our final-cut, we incorporated titles from a 3D template on Final Cut Pro. Deborah also made respiratory sounds created using Soundtrack Pro. This was good as it gave the audience an insight into how bad Cara's situation was. For our post-production, we have uploaded our film opening to Vimeo and are awaiting reviews from our target audience. 
Overall, I'm please with the way our film has gone, considering the lack of commitment from one person in our group whose name shall not be mentioned, I think we've definitely 'raised the bar' from our prelim in terms of technology as well as maturity. Just by adding idents, and our own soundtrack, there is no excuse for lack of innovation. Not being billed as your conventional thriller, I think it's an interaction viewers will enjoy to be a part of. 

The video embedded below is a montage of still shots taken from both our prelim and our final cut. There's a real difference in quality.

Evaluation - Q6

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

For this question, I created a power-point presentation and uploaded it onto slide-share which will allow me to embed my video. I got in-depth at technology used and whether or not our production has been a successful process.

Q6 from aa57304

If there's the possibility that that the slide isn't working, here's the written transcript for the powerpoint. 

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Production - For our film opening, we used the following programs: Final Cut Pro to piece together all of our filmed footage, Soundtrack Pro to create non-diegetic music used, throughout our opening, and Motion to create an ident for our fictional distribution company, 'DAK Pictures'. Personally  I took the role of editing our footage. It was a though job considering the standard we were trying to achieve. However, none of this would have been possible without the technology used. They all seem to function well together making life somewhat, easier. This power-point goes in-depth to the type of technology used and how well they worked together.

The type of technology used -
- JVC Camera - Of course, without this camera, we would've been unable to film. Though, the focus wheel was tough to pay attention to at time, it was really simple to use.
- SD Cards - Used to store our footage filmed, the SD cards provided safe-assurance and a second card slot on the camera incise the first ran out of space.
- iMac - With the RAM and capability of this powerful desktop, our film wouldn't have been achievable  Containing programs such as Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro and Motion, we were able to piece together our sequence with ease.
- Video Drive - Using this big bulk of silver, we were able to store all our final-cut footage as well as pre-lim bloopers, sound-loops/samples, camera archives and so fourth.
All the progress from our research, planning, filming, editing and evaluation was stored on Blogger. The friendly website allowed us to record all our progress as well as incorporate an assortment of multi-media make it look hi-tech and what not.

Example of technologies used:
- Final Cut Pro: We were able to import all the footage filmed from the JVC, piece it together in a linear sequence, trim clips, add transitions and video effects as well as insert a title sequence there was mix of template to use from. All progress could be saved onto the Hard-drive-disk and the final-cut could be exported as an MPEG4 and uploaded on Blogger.
- Soundtrack Pro: This allowed our to compose our own soundtrack using an assortment of samples and mixes. After a beat/sound was created. We added it into our footage on Final Cut Pro where we able to trim the sound according to the type of picture, on-screen.
- Motion: Being an 'fictional' distribution company, we were able to create an ident using Motion. Using this, we composed the title where we experimented with transitions and movements. We were able to add this to the beginning of our opening on Final Cut Pro and make it look that bit more professional!

Conclusion - Overall, it was a fun, fully-beneficial experience. Not only did I learn how to use an assortment of equipment, and programmes. I enjoyed every part of the production process. Personally, my favourite part of the production was using Final Cut Pro, because it felt rewarding combing all my experience and newly found abilities (Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Camera footage) into a linear sequence. Furthermore, I can see myself using all this technology in the future, perhaps as part of a full-time profession. However, I think I’d give blogging a miss! Though, it was vitally important to record all steps of my production, it felt difficult to maintain at times.

Evaluation - Q5

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your target audience?

I think mise-en-scene is the best aspect of our opening. For example, the use of action/mystery in our opening appeals to our audience because it immediately engages them with the plot and encourages them to follow the film.
Thinking back to our rough-cut feedback, we were initially without titles or a soundtrack, so incorporating that into our final-cut was a major improvement and ultimately, the reason behind the success of our film. We also used various editing-transitions to make the jump between shots appear 'seamless', a match cut if you'd prefer.
Though a good film should contain good camera-work, quality sounds, sharp editing and clear mise-en-scene, I think this is not the key element that attracts an audience (excusing the trailer). I believe it is the syndication behind it. We've created a Facebook page, Twitter and YouTube accounts so we could post trailers and interviews with the actors, starring in the film. Now, In a parallel universe, I'm sure Cara's an B-list celebrity but for the purpose of this evaluation, she is one. This'll make viewers want to watch their favourite actors, no matter what genre of film it is.
We've posted the 3-minute opening for our film on Vimeo and are currently awaiting collective criticism before proceeding to showing this film in cinemas.  

I also decided to do a 'Q&A Sunday' with an actor from the film - Brian Fissler - in which the public get to ask him questions in regards to my hectic promotional schedule and all the PR he's been doing.

For anyone un-able to understand/hear him. Here's a printed scrip of the video:

Hi guys, and for any of you forced by their kin to watch this and you don't quite know who I am, I am Brian Fissler, minor actor and brother to the very talented director Anthony Fissler, I told him I do this Q&A session for anyone interest in this film.  So let's get started!
[Q: What have you been doing to advertise this film]
- So far, I've been doing interviews with independent film sites such as Radience.org and IndieWire.com. We talk about the film's synopsis and working behind the stuff. There's some stuff said about Cara, the lead actor on there that may be inappropriate for me to say, right now. I suggest you check it out!
[Q: Has it been a hectic experience, so far?]
- Definitely, but that's the film industry for you. Any advice for those interest in film-making. The amount of dedication you put into advertisement and so, is really is how commercially successful you'll be.
[Q: I've seen the film-opening. It was really good. Was this really the right thing to do?]
- Firstly, thank you for your kind words, the team behind Pathogen appreciate any kind of feedback we can get. Secondly, seeing as the people at DAK Pictures are new to the film industry, it was only right that they see what viewers like yourself thought of the opening. After all, our film isn't your generic action-thriller-film. But, personally, I think that makes for a better film.
[Q: What are the plans for the future?]
- Well, after this Q&A, I'm off to the Cineworld at The O2 where an exclusive screening of Pathogen'll take place. After that, there's scheduled to be another Q&A session with me and the writers. For anyone London-based, with nothing to do this bleak-looking Sunday. Please, get yourself to North Greenwich and watch our full-feature.
Unfortunately, that's all I have time for but you'll be able to follow me on Twitter @FisslerLAD where I'll be tweeting the progress from the film. As ever, I enjoy hearing your feedback and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you for watching!

Evaluation - Q4

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for you media product?

Well, I don't think all thrillers in general has a specific audience - It really depends on the type of thriller film. Like all genres, there are sub-genres and we'd have to specify what sub-genre our film is. Seeing  as our film is billed as a mix between a mystery/conspiracy. We thought the action elements would be best suited to the young adults whereas the mystery interaction would be preferred by a maturer audience. Our group decided that the audience demographic for our film is 18-39, which is young- middle-aged adults.

Though it may be strange combining two age categories together, looking further into Thriller films. In my opinion, Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men are the two best action-thrillers I have ever seen. Considering their BBFC certificate, their target audience was probably for the young male adults. Meanwhile, there are those thrillers that are borderline horror films, such as: The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village. Since they're close to horror (and horror films target teenage girls), the demographic would be slightly different... probably younger and more female based (17-19). And then there are legal thrillers (Fracture, Runaway Jury) and crime thrillers (Memento, Se7en) are targeted at more mature audience (40-64).

We created a fictional Facebook account for someone who we thought would be interested in our film - Jessica Thomas. Looking at the screen-shots featured on this post - If we focus on her likes and interests, she enjoys watching conspiracy thrillers, dramas and the occasional rom-com. This is the kind of viewer we'd like to attract prominently because we'd want those with a mild interest in thrillers to watch our film with a couple of their on a night out. We believe it'd make for some interesting conversation, post-feature. 

I also did research on the FDA yearbook of 2011. Seeing as Thriller wasn't marked down on the chart for revenue generated from cinema-goers in the UK. Our film touches upon, horror and suspense, the average amount of money cumulated was £40million. Though it only makes up for a small-percentage of the year's box office, we think more of giving our viewers an enjoyable night out rather than making as much money as action would make (£256million). 

Overall, I think our film would attract twice as many viewers being a mix between two sub-genres. Not being you generic thriller-film, this 'blue-print' adds to the originality and innovation of our writers and if we aren't recognised for that, we've got an assortment of filming techniques and editing that'll make our film stand out from others.

Evaluation - Q3

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

For this question, I created a Prezi that looks in-depth at each type of institution: Hollywood, British Cinema and localised release, before going on to talk about which institution my film's suited to and why. Enjoy!

Evaluation - Q2

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Firstly, we need to establish what is representation in Media Studies? Well, It's the concern with the way that people, ideas and events are presented to us. We should identify what it is in a person that is actually being represented (age, gender, class, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation).
Our film opening displays, Cara, your typical teenager, nursing a cold, one morning. This conveys that she's a young independent woman. However, that statement has it's flaws. The film industry usually depicts these women as vulnerable and helpless, which end in a severe consequence. In Cara's case - death. Though we've represented Cara in a negative light, we, as a group, still acknowledge women are as strong as they're portrayed in real media as well as today's film, particularly dramas. For example, looking back at work on TV dramas - we studied gender representation from BBC drama Life on Mars. It took an interesting view at gender representation, specifically the police force during the 1970s, whether a female officer be working a radio, or walking the streets, Life on Mars’ creator, Matthew Graham  doesn't fail to depict the difference gender representation, and the impact they create when combined, initially creating a superior institution. Making both sexes as strong as each other.

I have embedded this moodboard created on Photobucket. There I was able to add a vast range of features including filters, light enhances and incorporate text. I attempted to represent the young independent social group that consists of women such as Cara, in this moodboard. Though it was though to compose, it was certainly easier than having to create a 3-minute piece of film!

Evaluation - Q1

Question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For this question, I wanted to take another unique twist on the vlog and so I did a live-commentary 'Director's Cut' whilst watching over my film opening using Camtasia. In this video, I discuss the forms and conventions used and whether they have benefited the film, positively or worse, negatively.

For those who are having trouble to hear or understand my voice, there is script printed below:
Hi guys, this is Anthony Fissler from Group 8, here. It's been a long and stressful process filming our thriller, but finally, we're finished. And what better way to take a break then to do my first ever 'director's cut'. In this video, I'll be talking about the norms and values used by our team and whether or not we followed or challenged the conventions of your typical thriller film, I hope you enjoy.
Firstly, In all film openings, it is vitally important to include: a good title sequence, clear picture, mise-en-scene and sound best suited to the film's genre. Typically, thriller films would depict the inevitability of something bad happening - death for that matter. However, we thought we'd take a unique twist on the conventional opening and jump straight to the death of who was to be believe as our lead protagonist, Cara. This was achieved with a mix of non-diegetic conversation and spine-chilling sounds created on Soundtrack Pro. Personally, I think that the title sequence is the key feature for a successful bit of film. Though, the design/graphics for titles are equally important, I think a film's first impression IS based on the order of appearance during a title sequence e.g. is the film's theme relatively sane or distorted perhaps. Looking back at the research conducted before filming, the actual structure of a film would go: Production company, distribution, lead actor and etc. The film Enemy of State, starring the Fresh Prince of Bell Air, himself, Will Smith, doesn't actually comply with the norm of modern-day action-thriller films and lists: The actors, casting, music, costume design and so forth, first. Though this enforced the fast-pace nature of the film. I think it was subtitle for our group to play it safe and stick to the generic title sequence held by the majority of films, today.
We included intertexuality in our film. Taking influence  from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. We incorporated the idea of the female character's death, during the shower sequence. To show a clear reference to this film we placed Cara dead on the floor and used a close up to enforce this idea of intertexuality.
In conclusion, considering how different our film opening was to others, I think this film has highlighted the innovation and willingness our group had to offer - In fact, I think our target audience will love this feature because we're it highlights the fact we're daring enough to challenge key features that impact the overall impression of a film. And for with that said, I'd like to thank you for watching and to look out for other videos!
[Stop video]

Evaluation 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The production company we used in the titles for our thriller opening was Candi Studios, and Dak was our distribution company.

Both are fictional companies, but if they were real they would be quite low-budget and not big multi-million dollar companies. However, I feel that our film would be more suited to large, Hollywood production and distribution companies. This is because it feels like quite a Hollywood themed block-buster movie, like Contagion.

Q2 - Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Representation is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way. Examples of representations for social groups are: gender, age, social class, sexuality, ethnicity etc.

In our thriller opening we represent gender and social class through Cara (character). 

We represented gender because we chose a female actress and females are usually shown as weak and vulnerable whereas males are shown as strong and dominant. We showed her as weak by making her look ill (with make-up) and also because she was a victim to the disease. If we chose a male actor instead, it would have still looked good but using a female has more impact. This is a negative representation and this is reinforced in real media. For example, in super hero movies such as spider man, the strong superhero is male and the heroine is female. The plot of the stories usually include the female getting into trouble and the male has to go and save her.

We represented social class because Cara(character) is middle class so middle class people from the audience will be able to relate to her. However in the full film we would also have every other social class because the disease affects everyone. This would make the audience more engaged and interested because they can put themselves into the characters' shoes.

Q7 - Evaluation

Progression from prelim to full product.

Pre-production 

PRELIM - As we had very little experience, we didn't carry out much efficient planning for our prelim. Although we did create a digital storyboard, it only consisted of simple shot types and made no reference to the actual happenings.

We did not apply a mood board to our prelim.

THRILLER - We created a fully annotated digital storyboard for the thriller, including exact camera shots, angles, order or shots, and location to ensure that we prepared for successful filming.

During the first steps of planning the film opening, we created a mood board with suggestions of thriller sub-genres, plots, and representations

Production

Mise en scene was something that we didnt focus on with the PRELIM, the environment barely set the plot of a Doctor's office, because there were no props or costume to present this. The only thing that showed the audience the plot was character's speech. 

(Made with Final Cut Pro)

Q5 - Evaluation

How did you attract/address your audience?

I think the aspects of our film that would attract our audience is:

the dramatic music

the plot because they can put themselves into the characters shoes

the shot types

the point of view shots

the name i think would draw them in instantly because it's an interesting name

We have reached our audience by facebook blogger cinema and vimeo

This is what attracted individuals from the audience about the film.

Evaluation Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Our target audience was of ages 15-35, and was not gender specific. We enticed this audience by using the different elements: camera, editing, sound, and mise en scene in ways that catered for them.

EVALUATION Q1 - How our media product connect with conventions of real media products?

Kellie Ward

There are specific conventions that film openings consist of to achieve a successful opening, these are;

Firstly music is inco-operated into majority of openings; both diegetic and non-diegetic can be used to set the overall tone of the movie and also accompany the pace of editing to ensure that a specific atmosphere is set to prepare the audience for the rest of the film.         Our thriller followed the convention of using music, however it had a twist because it wasn't music as such - it was a low bass TONE, as silence is also an effective way to create suspense and tension which thrillers are meant to do. 

Location (part of mise en scene) is another important element to give the audience opportunity to see, because it establishes the setting or at least one significant setting of the film and therefore also creates the overall plot. Environment and other parts of mise en scene can also set the time/year of the story. Location is inevitably shown through camera visuals, but may also be accompanied with special video effects, or audio effects to give a more specific, clear approach of the plot.      An establishing shot is alway used to introduce location at the beginning of the movie/scene, an establishing shot is a wide shot covering the whole room, building, or general environment. 

(Embedded via YouTube)

 

(Made with www.createagif.net)

We challenged this convention - as the Pathogen opening shot is of water pipes, it relates to the plot and story of contaminated water but doesn't reveal too much about character or regional location too early on.

A main goal is to introduce the main character or pre-plot within the opening, this literally gives the audience direct information about either the previous experiences and type of a character (e.g. gender, age, class),or previous events and situations in order to reduce confusion with future events and the rest of the film/story. Narration and on screen text can help to make situations exceedingly apparent.

Pathogen followed this type of film opening and showed a significant character 

Film titles appear in every typical film opening for practical reasons of informing people of the crew members, main roles and general co-operates involved with the movie. Of course, we included titles in Pathogen to give credit to all departments.

In film openings, there is also a typical conventional order of which the title sequences appear, this order usually consists of;

1. Production Company opening Ident 
2. Production Company title
3. Distribution Company title
4. Director/Writer
5. Actor 1 (Lead)
6. Actor 2 (Lead)
7. Film Title
8. Actor 3
9. Actor 4
10. Casting
11. Costume
12. Music/Music supervisor



We decided to follow this specific order of titles exactly for our thriller opening as we did research and concluded that uncountable highly successful films had also used this and had a good result.







(Created with Camtasia)

EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL THRILLER WITH CONVENTIONAL TITLE ORDER
The girl with the dragon tattoo for example; used the exact recommended order of titles and proved as a real life example that this sequencing professionalises the opening.

Intertextuality is something that we took into account during the very first stages of planning the thriller. We did not use many intertextual elements as we wanted to strike the audience in the most unique and individual way possible. 

However, there was one element that we extracted from many other movies (Psycho 1960 in particular) - and this was the idea of a main female character's death in the opening scene. To show a clear reference to this film we placed our actor in a similar death position and also used a close up shot = intertextuality

Pathogen final

08. Kellie Ward, Cara Mullen, Anthony Fissler, Deborah Daniel from 283goswell on Vimeo.

FACEBOOK SCREENSHOTS

Q1 - Evaluation

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

Evaluation Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute our media product and why?

Kellie Ward

        

I also created a short video sequencing some previous thriller's that Warner Brothers have invested in by producing or distributing.

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products in terms of the conventions of film openings. Film openings usually follow set conventions. They usually have either a) a narrative opening, b) a discrete opening, or c) titles over blank screen.

Narrative openings set the scene and introduce the characters and their situations. Discrete openings are when the openings are like separate films within themselves. Titles over blank screen is when the sequence begins with a blank screen which has a title on it. Our film opening is a narrative opening in which we introduce the main character and her situation.

Our media product also challenges forms and conventions of real media products because of the way the story is so strongly embedded into the opening; more than usual film openings. A whole chunk of the storyline is in the opening, not just a tiny snippet of it like in most narrative openings.

Our media product also uses forms and conventions of real media products in terms of title sequences. Title sequences usually follow a set conventional order. This usually starts with the production company ident and the distribution company ident, and ends with the writer and director's names. Our media product follows this conventional order of titles. We begin with our production company ident, and end with or director's name. However, we also challenge the convention of film titles because instead of the usual two actors names, we only have one.

Evaluation 4: Who could be the target audience for our media product?

Thriller films usually tend to draw an older-teenage to young-adult audience because of the age restrictions. A thriller film is usually rated 18, or 15 at least. Thriller films tend to appeal to older-teenagers and young-adults (17-26) because of the thrill element. Young people tend to love being thrilled, shocked and scared whole watching movies, just as when they're at theme parks. On the other hand, older-adults generally want to watch something a bit more laid-back and less thrilling. Also, the social element of thrillers is also something that helps it draw the young audience, as thrillers are films we tend to watch in groups like at sleepovers where everyone can scare and wind each other up. This is not the case for older-adults.

However, our film isn't really a standard thriller, it deviates slightly from the conventional 'blueprint' of a generic thriller. This means that it may draw a different, slightly broader audience. For example, this film could appeal to older-adults just as much as it appeals to older-teens and young-adults. It is a bit more mature and has a dark underlying theme of disease.

Seeing as our film is a bit like 'Contagion', I decided to look into the target audience for that film. 'Contagion' is billed as an action-thriller, and the target audience for action-thrillers is usually older-teens and young-adults like I previously mentioned. However, ours is less action and more conspiracy-centred, which makes for an older audience.

So, I think that the target audience for our media product is the older-teenage/young-adult market.

Editing - The process

Editing - Final Stages of Editing

We've come to end of our editing. And as we finish which was probably the hardest part of the filming process, it really does feel like a great weight has been lifted of our shoulders. Moving on, it has felt like a great relief, saving our project. With that said, we hope you enjoy our final product!

Editing - Order of Title Sequence

This is our title sequence of the cast in this order:

- Production Company (CANDI Studios)

- Distribution Company (DAK Pictures)

- Lead Actor (Cara Mullen)

- Film Title (Pathogen)

- Actor #2 (Kellie Ward)

- Actor #3 (William Diep)

- Actor #4 (Rogazad Zephaniah) 

- Casting By (Robert Fisher)

- Costume By (Hussam Thomas)

- Music Supervisor (Keiran Williams)

- Music By (Carl Johnston)

- Edited By (Rodah Daniel)

- Production Designer (Sarah Andrews)

- Executive Producer (Deborah Daniel)

- Directed By (Anthony Fissler)

We thought it would make our film more authentic if we kept the order sequence original and followed in the footsteps of generic thriller features.

Editing - Adding Effects

Though, we created many camera effects using Final Cut Pro. Our most interesting effect was the ident transition created for our (Fictional) independent distributor, DAK Pictures. We created this one using Motion. Though, it was hard to create, at first. We soon got the hang of it and created a simple slide of film. However, for those who might criticise how simple our ident is, other groups have taken distributor idents off the web. We've decided to stay true to teacher's rules and not use any footage from the internet.

The pictures below shows our process in creating an ident: 

Motion - the programme we used to create our ident. 

We started off by typing our distribution company on a black screen.

From there, we started to experiment with transitions. 

This was the playback of our ident with the added transitions. We assure you, it's more complicated than it looks!