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

http://prezi.com/ehmmit4bwhbb/technologies/

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

Preliminary task

Learnt about:
90 degree rule
shot reverse shot
continuity
how to use the equipment

Full product

used the techniques learnt in the preliminary for the full product.
I felt confident in using the equipment because the preliminary had gone well. I had good control over the camera and used a range of shots to good effect.
I was very confident with the filming because I had already realized where i had gone wrong and had changed that before filming the full product. Many things I had done wrong included having things in shot that where not supposed to be there, such as the legs of the tripod.
 

Progression

I feel that I have progressed because I have developed my skills, such as using the cameras and other pieces of equipment. I went from not knowing how to use camera's or tracks to being able to use both efficiently. I developed the ability to get what I wanted in the shot and get rid of unwanted things. I was able to use learnt techniques such as the 90 degree rule and shot reverse shot effectively and easily.
I am confident in using the equipment and the skills learnt now come naturally to me when filming.

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

David 5 - How did you attract/adress your audience?

We attracted our audience by showing them things in the film that are part of their lives. For example our target audience are teenagers between the ages of 15-18, most people in this category are still in school so our opening is filmed in a school.

Our target audience is known for having up to date mobiles and a page on a social networking site, we decided to include this in our film. Our target audience can relate to this as they use mobile, we also use the sound of a text message and then show the message appear.

David 4 - Who would be your audience for your media product?

 

These are pie charts that where made according to our survey. As you can see the largest sections are from white 15-18 year olds, so by using this information we were able to select actors based on age and ethnicity. 

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

I think that an independent media institution might distribute our media product because our product changes stereotypes and merges characters together, our main character is seen as a threat but is the victim. The same is said for our villain as he could be someone who helps her but goes against this.

Films distributed by independent media institutions have to use their own money to make the film, this would me that either we, our school or the institution would have to pay. Independent institutions include Momentum pictures and Film 4.

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

Our main character can be seen as a middle class innocent girl. We used the white costume to show that she was innocent.

Our villain is seen as a working class boy, this uses the stereotype because when thinking about working class boys you imagine them wearing hoods. The costume for our villain is black with a hood, the black then emphasizes that he is a villain.

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

http://prezi.com/zleihuzmzmlc/conventions-of-thrillers/

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

In our preliminary task, we had problems with continuity and match on action. This was due to a lack of experience with editing, so when cutting scenes we found it difficult to make it specific enough for match on action to look realistic and the cuts were not quick enough when there was a conversation so there were pauses and it didn't flow continuously.

An example of where match on action was used in our preliminary was when the door was opened, you can see the same action of the door first being opened is repeated, and therefore you can also hear the sound of the door opening twice.

An example of where match on action is used in our final product is when the victim falls over, and the action of her falling is well matched with the second cut of her falling so the fall looks believable. This is because we had learnt from this mistake in the preliminary and our editing skills had improved since the preliminary as we became better at using IMovie.

However, in our preliminary we did manage to keep to the 180 degree rule and used shot reverse shot to show the expressions of the characters during their conversation.

We did not keep to the 180 degree rule in our final product, but this was something we had decided on as it made it easier for us to get a high angle shot of the victim when she was on the floor to make her look vulnerable. It was also not as important for us to keep to the 180 degree rule in our final product as the focus was on the victim Alice for the majority of the opening so it was not as confusing for the audience for us to break the 180 degree rule as it would have been if we had broken it during the preliminary which showed a two way conversation. Breaking the 180 degree rule also added to the feeling of panic when Alice was running because it makes the situation come across as more out of control, which also helps convey Alice's mental instability.

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

During construction of this product we learnt how to use the following:

• Camera
• Tracks
• Tripod
• IMovie
• Blogger.com
• Youtube.com
• Freesoundproject.com

Firstly we learnt the basics of how to use the camera, such as how to record, pause and rewind the tape.
We then learnt how to use the camera to create different moods and atmospheres for our opening, how to make character's come across in a certain way and how to film in order to make our opening look well presented and not to confuse or distract the audience. To do this we learnt about the following:

• High angle shots - we found this useful when filming the victim as it made her come across to the audience as more vulnerable.
• Low angle shots - we used this to shoot the villain, as it made him appear to be more powerful and intimidating.
• Wide shots - we used this to help establish the setting of the opening.
• Close-ups - we used close-ups of the victim's eyes in the beginning to help convey the genre of the opening and of chloe's face when receiving a text message from the villain and when running to show her facial expressions to the audience, which reveal a lot about the emotions and state of mind of the victim. Close-ups can also be used to make a character look powerful as their face is dominant on the screen.
• Long shots - We did not use a lot of long shots for our opening as it is very fast paced and the action starts quite early in the opening and we wanted the viwer to be able to see what was going on. Long shots can be used to establish the setting and make a character look helpless or insignificant as they will appear very small in the shot, but we felt we had already established the setting and made the victim appear vulnerable using other techniques. 
• Checking the camera is level was important in making sure the product looked professional and so not to distract the viewer from what was going on.
• Checking the camera lense was cleaned before we started filming was also important in making our product look professional and not distracting the viewer from what is happening. In our opening we had problems with this because although we had cleaned the camera lense and it looked clear during shooting, when we uploaded the video onto to IMovie and saw what we had filmed on a bigger screen we could see that there had been water marks on the lense of the camera. We took this into consideration during the rest of our filming and ensured we cleaned the lense thoroughly and checked it a few times before filming.
• 180 degree rule - we learnt that the camera should stay within 180 degrees, unless there is good reason not to do so. This is to prevent the audience from becoming confused or disengaged. 

We then learnt how to use a tripod so that the camera would be stable whilst shooting, which is very important for making the film look professional and not distracting the viewer. We also learnt how to use tracks with the tripod so that the camera moved steadily and at a constant level whilst we filmed our victim running.


We used IMovie to edit our opening. We learnt how to import the footage onto IMovie, how to cut and reorder the footage, and then add effects and sound.

We published our ideas on blogger.com so we had a record of them which all members of the group could access easily. We also used blogger.com to evaluate our product.

We learnt how to upload onto youtube.com as we put our preliminary task and our final product on this website. We also learnt how to access and use un-copyrighted music from the website freesoundproject.com, which was useful for finding the sounds for our opening such as the text message  and gun shot sound in our opening.

Lucinda - 5.How did you attract/address your audience?

There were many things to consider when trying to ensure that our media product would attract our target market. The first thing we had to decide on for the opening was the narrative for the film which our opening would be based on. We first decided that we wanted to include a social theme to the film because social networking sites have become increasing popular among young people in recent years, and advances in mobile phone technology has made it possible for people to communicate more easily and in new ways. Therefore, we decided having a social theme to the film would be beneficial in targeting our audience because the film would be seen as more modern and current by keeping up with changes that our happening in society, which we believe will be our interest to our young target market. We showed this in our opening by featuring the main female actress with a modern mobile phone.

We also wanted to include both a teenage male and female in our opening, because although our main target audience is female teenagers, we also wanted to try and target some male teenagers as well as this would give our film a greater chance of being successful  if we could appeal to both genders. We chose a teenage girl to be the main character so our audience feels this is a film that would be suitable for their age range and gender from watching our opening. We then considered the setting of our opening, and although our filming was limited to within school, this worked well because our main target audience is aged between 15 and 18 so this is a setting that is likely to appeal this audience as it is a location they can relate to.

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

Our market research showed us that our main target audience was going to be white females between the ages of 15 and 18, so we made our treatment and opening to appeal predominantly to this audience. We decided to aim our product at this audience because the majority of people who answered our questionnaires came into this category, showing that this market exists and therefore that there is likely to be demand for our product. It also meant that we have information about this audience from the questionnaires which would help us construct our product to appeal to them.

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

An independent institution such as Momentum pictures or Film4 might distribute our media product. This is because our product is aimed at a niche market, so is unlikely to be distributed by a more mainstream institution. To money for our film will therefore be likely to come from an independent distributor, or we would have to raise the finance ourselves. This may mean that our film does not have as big a budget for production as some more mainstream films, but as technology has closed the gap between consumers and producers it has become easier for people to produce and distribute films themselves.

The film Slumdog Millionaire was originally released in a similar way, as it was originally produced to be an independent film but became more mainstream across cinemas as it proved very popular. Another film which would be released in a similar way is Kidulthood because this film is also aimed at a niche market, similar to the market that our product is aimed at as both are aimed at teenagers and young people.

Lucinda 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product represents teenage students and people from middle and working class backgrounds. The main female actress in our opening is conveyed to the audience to be a middle class teenager because she is dressed in an outfit which is conventional of a people this age and from this background. The setting of the opening is in a school which also implies that she is a student. The fact that the victim is shown to be a teenage girl is significant because it encourages the audience to feel sympathy for her as our main target audience is teenage girls so they will feel like they can relate to this character more.

Middle class teenage girls are conventionally portrayed as one of two extremes: either rebellious, outspoken and sexually promiscuous or innocent and vulnerable. In our opening we chose the convention of the innocent teenage girl, and this is portrayed through her white costume and we took this into consideration during the casting process.

Working class teenage boys are conventionally portrayed as mischievious trouble makers, and our villain conforms to this stereotype. This is shown in his costume as he is dressed in black and he is wearing a hoodie which is stereotypical dress for teenage working class males. The iconography of the gun alerts the audience of the genre of the film as well as suggesting he may be criminal and a threat. The picture on the bottom right shows a similar representation of a villain in the film Kidulthood. The villain is also wearing a hoodie over his head and a knife is used as a prop.

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

The title of the film 'Social Suicide' is conventional of thrillers because the use of the word suicide implies to the viewer that the film is likely to be a either a thriller or horror as it creates a dark sense to the film from the beginning. We also chose to incorporate a social theme in the title by naming it 'Social Suicide' because the story line of the film is based on social networking through the internet and by phone. Our film title is similar to the modern film 'The Social Network', which is not a thriller but also explores the theme of social networking.

For the the title we used a red font with a white background. Although it is more conventional for thrillers to have a dark background, especially when an there is an element of horror in the film, we chose a white background because we filmed our opening during the day and a dark background may distract the viewer from what is happening in the opening. Another reason we chose to have a white background is because the colour white is associated with mental institutions, which helps convey to the audience that Alice may be mentally unstable. The red font is conventional for thrillers and horrors because it symbolizes blood, and therefore implies the film may be gory and include horror. This American Psycho title page is similar in terms of the colours used.

The setting for our opening is in school which is conventional for thrillers aimed at a similar age group as ours  because many teenagers are in education, so they can relate to the film more when it is in this setting. The costumes in our opening are also conventional for thrillers because the victim is dressed in white which conveys her innocence to the audience and suggests that she may be the victim, and the villain is dressed in all black which suggests he is a 'dark' or evil character. It is also difficult to see the villain's face clearly in the opening which makes him mysterious to the audience and therefore suspicious of him. A gun is used as a prop for the villain which conveys to the audience that he is perhaps dangerous and evokes a sense of fear in the audience which also connotes that he may be the villain.

We decided to use close ups of Alice's eyes in the beginning of our opening. We did this because close-ups of eyes are very conventional of thrillers so it helps to convey the genre of the film and because it is usually the villain's eyes that are shown it implies that Alice may actually be the villain, as the villain is a figure of her imagination.

A low angle point-of-view shot is used to introduce the villain which conveys his power and dominance over Alice to the audience.

A high angle shot is used to convey the victim's vulnerability and heighten the villain's superiority.

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

In my perliminary it was very roughly cut, there were sound problems and there was a lack of continuity. However, during it we did stick to the 180 degree rule and used shot reverse shot. In Social Suicide, we didn't use shot reverse shot because our narrative was mostly based around the hysteria of one person, Alice.

I did learn how to use the equipment properly so that we produced smoother camera shots without it being shakey like in the perliminary. We changed this through using tracks and a tripod instead of jumping over different characters shoulders. On the other hand, when we wanted to have shakey shots in our opening, we new how to make them effectively shakey thanks to our previous experience with our perliminary.

Editing our perliminary really helped us produce a better end product because we learnt not to make too many cuts between shots and if we did, not to take too many milli secs/seconds out between eachshot if we had to cut the clips down. This made it more jumpy in the perliminary and so we stuck to having longer shots and less smaller actions (like opening the door) to ensure our opening ran smoothly.

We did break the 180 degree rule, but what we learnt was that you can break the rule if it's for a good reason. We only went a little out of the 180 degree rule and onto the other side of Alice so we could get a good low angle close-up of her, and to create a raw uneasyness when she falls, drawing the audience into the scene/action further.

180 degree rule

    On the other side of the 180 degree rule 

The sound on our perliminary was tempermental because both characters had two different sound levels because they were speaking at two different volumes. We eliminated this by making sure our acttress spoke at the same volume and added non-diagetic music over it, to both create tension but also cover any background sound we couldn't eliminate on iMovie, making her voice sound clearer to the audience.

Overall, the perliminary exercise was very helpful in gettin to grips with the camera equipment and learning what and what not to do.

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

I learnt a lot about new technologies while carrying out this project. I've found new software that makes it easier to see that films can really now be made at home, closing the divide between the consumer and producer and allowing the audience to produce quality films on their own. The rise in this technology is improving rapidly, this is probably due to the popularity of 3D movies in the cinema, because technology hasn't progressed that far for 3D home studios/cameras yet that produce a similar quality to those in the film industry. However, this is why I really found that films now have to have a good/original storyline in order to be a success, but not without the importance of it's presentation. This lead us to try and create a realisticly shot and produced product, to make it look believable as a media product, but also try to stay true to the original consept of the storyline. The software we used were:

-The camera equipment (camera, tripod, tracks)
-iMovie (visual and special effects)
-iTunes
-Freesoundproject.com (uncopyrighted music)
-Photoshop
-Uploading video's onto Youtube
-Blogger
-Slideshare
-Prezi

Tecnology q6

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Marcelle - 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Attracting our audience Q5

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

The audience for our media product would be teenage girls who are in education, because we set it in a school, the storyline of the overall movie deals with the emotions of being bullied, not conventionally liked by teenage boys and featured a main female character of whom the audience can relate to.The male character acts as a protector in Alice's mind throughout the rest of the movie and it features romantic relationships making the movie link to romance movies also, appealing more to a female audience. Our secondary audience would be male teenagers as it also features a male villain that has an imposing stance, also resembling a hero’s stance.

In our audience research most ot our results were for female, so we aimed our opening at a female audience.

Our demographic would be mostly white due to our target audience research, but will also appeal to other nationalites because of our character Alice and our dead people being racially ambiguious.

 

 

Our demographic would have to be above a certificate 15 as there is implied violence here from the title and the gun references.

 

The psychographic would also have to be interested in technology such as mobile phones and facebook because we use aspects of that in our movie. Even though we aimed to have a comedic aspect in our film like Donnie Darko with the bunny, we didn’t make it as obviouis as we planned, this is because we were originally planning on having links to social networking sites such as Facebook and make our own called Bobspace.

 

However, we didn’t think it fit in with the narrative of the opening of her running outside and thought it would be too complicated to explain that she was on Bobspace on her phone, so we fell back on text messaging as phones and texts are still a big part of teenagers lives. We used bobtext networks to have a subtle comedic factor but the audience wouldn’t realise this until later on in the movie of where it would be more of a stressed idea. As the narrative is based around the text messages, they would also view themselves as socialites and to be on their phones a lot in order to really relate to the character in the narrative.

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

'Social Suicide' would be an independent film as it converts the stereotypical characters of thrillers and movies in general: submerging the villain with the victim making it more of an psychological enigma and aiming it at teenagers, making our audience a niche one. As our movie is independent, the money to produce it would either have to come from us, our school or an independent distributer like Revolver Entertainment, Film 4 productions or Momentum Pictures.

Independent films such as the King's Speech (Momentum), Kidadulthood (Revolver) and Attack the Block (Film 4) have been featured through these distributers and have still been seen by a wider audience than most independent films.

 

  

  

This was done through adverts on popular or more commercial tv channels, reaching a wider audience, including a wider secondary audience. This means if we were to use these distributers, hopefully our niche movie would still have the rough, inde pendent feel, allowing our film to have more focus on the storyline opposed to having to appeal to a commerial audience, but still have a good size audience and exposure. They have also had previous films aimed at a teenage audeince, making them have more experience and have proven success at distributing films like ours.