conspiracy theory trailers

When looking at the two conspiracy theory thriller trailers I feel that the complexity of the story is potent throughout. I feel that this would be a set back of our thriller as we would be more focused on the story line than we would on the content and technical elements. I feel that this is something we need to consider and personally, I do not feel it would be a good idea to do this sub genre of thriller.

evaluation questions

•  the evaluation the following questions must be answered:
•  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
•  How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Who would be the audience for your media product?
•  How did you attract/address your audience?
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product
•  Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Brainstorming

First off our group decided which thrillers we are personally interested in. we decided from looking at previous groups that a religious thriller looks good when done well. Conspiracy theory is original although it could be difficult and a horror thriller would be good as we are aware of the codes/ conventions as well as stereotypes we should keep away from. After that we listed things relevant and stories we could create. As well as sound and possible angles.

After researching further into each thriller we plan to brainstorm for each thriller sub genre to look further into what we could create. Here (on the right) is a picture of the story lines and possible names. Moreover we have looked at how the stories could link in order to broaden our story ideas.







above are our idea for the genre of our film and a possible shot list of what we would like to use.
we have now updated it and will be including:
1)Dolly zoom-to show fear or shock.
2)Panning shots-To make our charcter to seem as if shes being followed/watched.
3)Reverse shot-signify a flash back,build up suspence.
4)crab shot-use a super wide angle lens(fisheye) on the door to create a peep hole effect.

initial research to what the audience want

From this questionnaire we can see the age of the people that we are targeting towards, the gender, the ethnicity, how regularly they watch these thrillers. These questions all build up to the final question that takes us to what they want to see. The people filling out the questionnaire are who we are targeting our thriller to therefore we think that we need to be making a teenage film- therefore 15 rating. From our results we gathered we can see that they ideally would like to see a horror thriller. This is an interesting piece of evidence for us as it helps us to see what our target audience want however we need to take into consideration originality and what works best for us. Therefore these results are something that have swayed us into taking a horror thriller into consideration as this wasn't an option at the start. 

basic editing task 2

This cut is much more successful than our first, within this cut we can see a lot more of our shot list. Within the clip we can see a change from the technically of the shots, creating a much more professional look to the clip.

analysis and reflections of our first cut

During the filming of our clip we encountered many problems that have resulted in a number of ramifications during the process of editing. For example, during many of our extreme close-up shots we have attempted to incorporate the eyes, nose and mouth all within the confines of the frame, causing a very distorted and untidy shot. We have since learnt that when using an extreme close-up, it is important to focus specifically on one area of the face: this can be either the eyes and nose, or the nose and mouth - as depicted below.

An extreme close up of the eyes and nose.

An extreme close up including the nose and mouth.

It also occurred to us that this principle remains important in the context of a thriller, by not fully disclosing the identity of the person it builds suspense. Whilst we did not successfully capture the extreme close-up, they were also scarce throughout our clip - after analysing our first cut through the resources on the iMac we noticed that segments involving dialogue were often rather boring due to the use of a single two-shot (establishing shot) recording the entirety of a conversation. We agreed that in order to keep an audience engaged in the clip using close-ups/extreme close-ups to capture facial expressions would improve our feature considerably. Furthermore, a succession of shot reverse shots where considered as a viable solution to the problem as this would allow the audience to observe the emotions of the characters and understand the situation. During the latter stages of our clip two girls are shown running - one chasing the other. We noticed that after analysing this scene our clip manifested lax camera work, at some point throughout the clip at least one of the girls did not feature in the full frame of the camera. It was also noticable that our use of match on action was very poor, as match on action refers to the process of time elapsing through a succession of different shots, usualy around three or four to show smoothly how our character got from one place to the next almost tricking the viewer to feel as if they watched each step with there own eyes.

basic editing attempt 1

For the task we where set we had to go out and film a short film following our plan that was no longer than 90 seconds but over a minute.
Personally i found the filming to be harder than i had thought; to keep using the 180 degree rule while also including all the shots that where on are list was challenging but in the end of our first shoot we though we had done it.

we then aplied them into adobe premier.  we realised that our reverse shot angle was filmed badly and some head where cut of but we carried on editing to have a test run.

The edit its self was good but there was things to improve on so we dicided to reshoot.
we filmed all our new clips and made sure they looked more proffessional and would run smoothly in the edit.  we will be editing these tomorrow in my free period and doing the final touches next lesson.
We forgot to include many shots and will need to keep the following in mind to our next edit.

basic editing task attempt 1

The film above is our first edit that we shot.
we realised we had chopped some heads and didn't do a real over the shoulder or include a match on action.
for our second shoot we will keep this in mind while shooting.
we will also edit it smoother as some clips ran on longer than they shouldn't making the edit not flow as smoothly as it could.

Depicted above: I am shown entering the room through the door, and eventually exits to the left of the frame. The shot itself is fine - I am within the confines of the frame and the camera is at a suitable height/angle - however, it is the following shot that demonstrates our poor use of match on action.

Subsequent to me walking past the camera, the clip cuts immediately to this shot which defeats the object of match on action meaning, arguably, there is no match on action whatsoever in our clip. Match on action is designed to gradually reveal a person's journey from one point to another through a succession of three or so shots. My walk on the other hand, is conveyed through two shots and makes for a very disjointed scene. At this point in the scene, Daisy (sitting) instructs me to sit down. Immediately, the camera cuts to me sitting down and manifests no match on action at all which, again, causes the scene to look disjointed rather than a consistent piece of film comprised of smooth transitions.

In essence, the scene does not show me walk to her seat smoothly and is very 'jagged', and does not represent time elapsing.

However, one positive than came of our filming was our ability to adhere to the 180 degree rule.

Overall, the following improvements must be made to our clip:

• Match on action must be clearer, representing time elapsing
• Ensure subjects are kept within the confines of the frame
• Demonstrate a shot reverse shot
• Vary our range of camera angles - low/high angle shots/mid shots to emphasize superiority etc.

Location for our thriller

For our thriller, we as a group feel that we need a location that could be manipulated through filming/ lighting to look sinister. We want our location to be a stereotypical scenery for a thriller- secluded, empty and gloomy. From this image we can see that you can take an average looking secluded scene and make it look like a thriller setting due to lighting and editing used.

Firstly we thought of Black Park, which is a park/ woods located in Iver Heath. Yet this will depend upon the thriller genre we decide to follow. For example if we were to follow a horror thriller genre, a woods and darkness would be stereotypical of the genre. However a genre of conspiracy theory it wouldn't be suitable as this is more relevant to mind and certain things for example- twin towers, the media etc.

editting research

Today was about examining the process of editing film and why certain editing techniques are employed to engage the consumer. One of these film techniques is called parallel editing - also known as cross cutting. To analyse these methods, we were shown an extract from 'The Godfather: Part II' (1974), in which Michael Corleone (portrayed by Al Pacino) is midway through the conduction of his baptism. Intermittently, the camera would cut to scenes of hit men fulfilling organised murders on Michael's behalf. The ideology behind Francis Ford Coppola's desire to utilize cross cutting is to create an element of juxtaposition that shocks the reader: Michael is at a baptism - his baptism, and in conjunction with him swearing on the bible and announcing repent for his sins and all evil, people are committing murders on his behalf, which paints Pacino's character as ostensible and insensitive. Parallel editing often happens when two events taking place simultaneously but in different location, the two scenes usually connect which results in the culmination of the scene. This creates tension building up to a climax - one notable example of this is when Jonathan Demme decided to use cross cutting in the acclaimed thriller 'Silence of the Lambs' (1991) when the FBI aim to capture protagonist Buffalo Bill. Primarily, parallel editing is used to create suspense to scenes that would otherwise be perceived as boring if shown separately.

Parallel editing (cross cutting) is fundamental in building suspense, imperative in culminating a scene despite the fact that an audience most likely know what is going to happen, although they are not entirely sure when.

Above is a good example of parallel editing in an extract from "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991).