This blog has been marked. SJA 08/05/11

Thriller Opening

Your mark

Hi Jamal,

I have just been back through your blog to give it a final mark for research & Planning. I am really pleased with the effort you have invested in to your blog to date. keep up the good work.

Current mark: 16/20

Level: 4 (low)

Grade: B+

To improve:

Research section - check the conventions of your genre post / check my feedback to you for this and see if you can develop / make more visual

Planning: Shot lists (use the template I emailed to you)

Shooting schedule: I can see you have uploaded a new one using the school template - make sure you delate the old one you had - stick to having the proper school template there only.

SJA

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Feedback from my peers on Facebook

I had chosen to upload my draft thriller opening sequence to Facebook to get a range of feedback from my friends. Most of my friends said that I needed to slow the titles down as they weren't to visible. This has now been changed. However most people enjoyed their viewing experience.

Voiceover about my opening sequence

Shot response

This is a quick shot response which most people were unsure about when we got feedback from our Facebook page. We have now improved the shot due to the audience response.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel I have steadily made progression using various media techniques, as I feel I struggled to understand the depths of editing and inventive camerawork in my preliminary task. Although I knew some basics of editing, such as slow motion, fast/slow paced shots and black screen I fill I that I developed these further whilst creating my thriller opening sequence. Similarly my camerawork skills also were lacking before I composed my opening sequence I only knew the basics, for example low/ high angle shots, two shots and close up shots.

Screenshots from my preliminary task

As you can see from the screenshots of my preliminary task, all of the frames are pretty much simple; they have an over the shoulder shot, two shots, low angle and handheld shots. When given my feedback on my preliminary task some people stated that some shots were unstable, others said that our continuity editing could have improved as the hand was changed when opening the door.

Screenshots from my opening sequence

These are screenshots from my opening sequence, we have used some creative camera work such as an establishing shot to set the tone and atmosphere and long shots to increase the amount of tension. In terms of editing, we have also tried to incorporate black and white effects, earthquake effects and overlapping transitions between the shots. Even though slow motion was a one effect which I would call simple, I believe I used it in the correct places so it worked well. Besides, I worked well on trying to get our continuity editing perfect with the dog lead as I swapped so we had to keep the shot in a little longer so the audience was not left confused.

When looking back on my preliminary task I had made notes on how to improve my further filming, I noted that so my shots were not so steady so in future I needed to use a tripod so my shots were not shaking and helped an audience to feel more comfortable whilst watching. Also most people said I needed to improve my posture as it did not flow with my continuity editing. In comparison, whilst completing my thriller opening I feel I gained more knowledge about camera positioning and framing the shots well.

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

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Within these photos we have a male named Jake Tate; he is 17 years of age. He currently lives in the capital of England in a place called Sutton.

Jake has a casual, however smart dress sense, he favours name branded clothes from retail stores such as All Saints, Jack Wills, Superdry, Levis and top man. If you was to see Jake on a normal day he would wear jeans, a jumper with a jacket over the top and a pair of Vanz trainers. He adores organising and attending events such as meals, especially at the Harvester and occasionally ice skating and under 18 raves in his spare time.

Jake is a character who would like to chill out at home and watch comedy movies like The hangover, American Pie and loves other films such as The Pacifier, Toy Story, Taken, The Ring, and Wallace and Gromit. He would normally watch these types of films with family and friends at home or visit his local cinema in Wimbeldon. Jake will generally watch football as being a huge fan of Manchester United, movies and music on TV. His desired television programmes would be Celebrity Juice, Family guy, Inbetweeners, Soccer am and Embarrassing bodies. These categories of programmes will come on Channel 4, E4, ITV2 and BBC Three.

Besides, he is keen to watch television programmes on various channels for instance Sky comedy, Sky thriller, Sky family, BBC 1 and BBC 2. Jake listens to a diverse range of music which reflects his personality for example, Dance, Electronic, Hip-hop, Rap, R&B, Dubstep and Rock Alternative. The genre of music he listens to is influenced by the radio stations he listens to. An illustration of this would be BBC 1XTRA, X FM, Capital FM, Heart, Kiss 100 and Magic.

I believe my opening sequence would charm Jake as he is the stereotypical lad who enjoys a laugh with a bit of ‘banter’. If my film was to be shown at his local cinema in Wimbeldon, I am sure he would enjoy it as it is individual and quirky. It will also appeal to him as it is similar to some of the films he would watch at a cinema.