Q8 - Looking back preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the progression from it to the full product?

After 4 months of studying how to make a film, I have learned a lot. At the start, I didn't even know how to correctly handle a camera...

I remember the day when we finally had the induction lesson on the camera; I was looking towards that lesson for ages.

Our first task was to create a preliminary film, following the scenario that was given to us by our teacher. The scenarios were really simple/boring, therefore our objective was to try and make it interesting by using a wide range of shots and a creativity. Our group was given "Bag Swap". As a group, we really thought we were really lucky at the time, because other groups had scenarios like "reading a newspaper"... But when it got to the planning/filming, we really found it simplistic and it was actually quite hard to try and remember to use all the shot types asked.



As this was our very first film ever, for us all in the group, it wasn't bad at all. We have managed to use several shot types, such as close-ups and mid-shots. Today, when I look at it, I realise how much we have improved, as a group.

Here is an example of how much I have improved my camera skills. On the preliminary task, here on the left, we can clearly see that the character is walking up the stairs. However, the top of her head is cut off. In our real film, the filming is neater as you can see that the top of her head isn't cut off.

This is only one example of how much we have improved. Along the course, we have learned how to use Soundtrack pro and Final Cut Pro with ease and confidence.

During the preliminary task, we have learned a bit more about audience and how to target our film to a particular audience, using stereotypes or Mise En Scene for example. I think that we have made the right decisions in our real film. The main character is a teenage girl and the soundtrack used is popular to teenagers. Therefore, our target audience (which is teenagers aged 15+) is, in some ways, part of the film.

In the process of making our real film, our group had to go through several challenges. First, one of our group member had personal problems and ended up being misunderstood by most of the group. A lack of trust towards him gained us. After talking to our teachers, a radical decision was made; it was best for him to quit the group. I didn't want it to end up like this, however I think it was necessary in order to conserve the well-being of the group. We couldn't work properly anymore.

This was at the start of making our real thriller. After this little "incident", we managed to get over it and carry on preparing our blog. I cannot believe how much planning we have done for... 2 mins of film! This is incredible, and I cannot imagine how much work you have to do for a 2hr film...


Overall, the experience of filming / planning was really good. I loved it! Media is one of my favourite subject, and this experience allowed me to improve my skills in Filming (camera), Editing (using several editing programs, including soundtrack pro and final cut), and how to work in a group. I can't wait to make my second film!

Our opening sequence was a success! Well done guys :-D

Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller, the main character is a 16-year-old teenager girl who listens to mainstream music. She spends her time chatting to her friends and reading fashion magazines. In order to represent our character, we used stereotypes of a typical teenager girl. 

What Lies Beneath and The Return both use stereotypes of women, as they are both shown as vulnerable.

The Return

What Lies Beneath

Question Four & Five

Q3 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

 The target audience of our thriller would be teenagers, aged 15+. In order to illustrate our audience, I have created an illustration of the typical target audience member, with a little lifestyle summary.

Sean, 18-year-old, is a student at George Monoux College. He loves to watch thriller and horror films, especially the ones with a twist.  Always on Facebook, Sean is connected 24/7 with his friends. But when he puts his phone down, it’s to watch a film. He loves going to the cinema, with or without his friends. His passion for films made him more aware of the newest releases but also, independent films.

 

In his bag, we can find... 

A Vue Cinema card

An iPod

A smartphone, with an Internet plan

An Odeon cinema card

Q1 - How does your media product use, develop or challenges forms and conventions of real media product?

I have decided to compare our thriller opening The Return to another thriller opening called Panic Room. I have chosen to compare our film with Panic Room because they both have a narrative opening.




 Also, as our thriller opening challenges the traditional way of opening a thriller, using a narrative title sequence, I thought it was a good idea to compare it to a the conventions of a real thriller.
In order to make the differences clearer, I have made a little montage of both videos.

As you may see, our opening sequence challenges Panic Room in several ways. Panic Room have Columbia as their distribution/production company. As our film is an independent student film, it is produced by our college's studio City And Islington College Studios.

Panic Room have their title shown right at the start of their opening sequence, while ours is at the end. Also, they have started their opening sequence with an establishing shot of New York when we have immediately started our opening with the story.

Our thriller also challenges the conventions used by Panic Room by using a wide range of shots. While they only have establishing shots and a long shot at the end, we have used mid-shots, close ups, long-shots... But this is mainly due to the fact that they have decided to start their opening sequence with establishing shots.

Question Seven

Q6 - Audience Feedback

 Class Feedback... (28th march)

Wow, that was interesting! We had a chance to be able to see how our class' mates react to our opening sequence.

The most common thing that came up was the music, the soundtrack. Most of them likes it, some loved it but some hated it. It was interesting to see different point of views.

Another thing they talked about a lot was the black&white sequence, which we used in order to emphasis the fact that it was a dream. Again, some loved it and some didn't like it. However, some didn't understand why it was there, which I think is a really bad feedback unfortunately. It's very important that the audience understands everything, and that nothing feels out of place.

Another thing our audience loved was the titles (both opening and the title of the movie). A good point for us because it took us quite a while to make the "wipe" effect wiping at the right time in order to make it seem it disappears as the character walks "into" it.

Audience Feedback... (5th April)

  

Yesterday, everyone doing media had a chance to see their films on the big screen, at The Screen On The Green (an independent cinema in Islington). We also got the chance to see other groups' work!

As you can see, there was a long queue in front of the cinema. In fact, there was 200 students in total! 200 students seeing our film... Wow. We started to panic...

After having a little chat with our friends and one of my group member, Marry (one of the media teachers, here on the picture) came at the front to congratulate us of our work. This was it! The show was finally starting, after 2 months' worth of work it was finally ready to be shown. Our first film, on the big screen...

The films weren't shown in any particular order (or it didn't seem to be anyway) so we couldn't really know when our film was going to be shown. We saw really good films out there, it was good to see other ideas being developed on the screen and to be able to "compare" our work with others'.

Wow, that was really funny. We expected everything, everything BUT people singing along the soundtrack! It was fun though, and it clearly showed that the soundtrack we used matched our target audience. As the film continues, I was getting a bit worried because when we showed our film to our class, some people didn't quite get the story... But when the memorial was shown on the screen, our audience became quieter. This definitely got their attention. When the memorial was then shown in between the magazines she threw on her bed, our audience had a really good reaction to it. They got it, this was a relief.

After the show, I interviewed a 3 people to ask them feedback about our film... (Even though they had a trouble remembering our film! It wasn't surprising actually because after viewing 45 films... You can't really remember everything!)

Some great feedback here, thanks to Ada, Vanessa and Evie! :)