Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for this project would stereotypically be teenagers from the age of 15+ who enjoy thriller based films. Stereotypically it is said that teenage girls enjoy productions like this more than boys, the picture of girls represent a sleepover, i expect our production has the perfect genre to become excited and on edge curled up with friends. At this age teenagers appear to be intrigued in unusual storylines and such genres due to the adrenaline they enjoy. The genre is conveyed through the eerie music and voice overs as well as filming in specific ways. The different angles allowed us to create that mysterious atmosphere which the specific audience are expecting. At this age teenagers are also open to different understandings therefore our production would appeal to the many teenagers who are intrigued in learning about different things such as biblical aspects or even mental health issues, seen as the girl in our sequence is hearing voices. Our production is evidently quirky due to its thriller based nature and requires a lot of analysing so therefore those who enjoy soft drama and love stories wouldn't appreciate it as much.






Our project would be given a 15 certificate in that it contains aspects that may be hard to understand by some viewers. For example: the voices the girl hears and her religious background. However, our project does not contain any extremities such as violence or horror aspects. The only dramatic features it includes is the psychological voice overs and the expressions given off by the girl. This is probably one of the main reasons why we have chose to give our project the certificate 15 as these may be features that anyone younger could not comprehend nor understand.


Seen as our product has a focus upon religion and potential mental health, it could essential be used to raise awareness about these focal points within schools and/or colleges. For example, our sequence could be shown in general r.e lessons and used as a discussion point for different lifestyles, ie- religious lifestyles and also people who suffer from mental health. This would be greatly benifical as for mental health issues still remain a slightly taboo subject and by intergreating them within a teenagers thriller film could urge more people to accept and break the taboo surrounding mental health. And so therefore overall, other members of the audience could be pupils. In addition this means our sequence would be used as an education feature aswell as an entertainment one.

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

From our preliminary task we learnt that before we could participate in filming we had to make a plan of exactly what we wanted to film. We discussed and wrote down what genre we wanted to do and what themes it included. We decided within the group that we wanted it to be of thriller genre with psychological aspects. This accounted for our original sequence, however as we chose to change it due to the shots not producing continuity we decided to add biblical aspects as well as psychological.

We then discussed the locations we wished to use. Seen as we wanted biblical aspects in our film we chose to use a chapel to film our first couple of shots. To broaden the sequence and add more locations we then agreed to use a rural area with lots of space. By using a rural area it conveyed freedom but ironically in this case: the lack of freedom due to the voices in the protagonists mind. The rural location was very far and so proved difficult for us to organize specific times the whole group could get together.

As mentioned previously, we encountered a problem surrounded the continuity of the original shots, leading us to start filming new shots. This wasn't beneficial for us because it required a lot of time. Although, we did keep certain shots the same and only changed the context they were in. We also kept a similar genre a psychological thriller which would engage the audience as it urges them to begin to understand what the psychological aspects are about.

Pictures of Location

After we filmed our production we took screenshots of the location we used on google maps. We chose the location wisely as we were aware that the location is one of the main elements which informs the reader of the genre of the film. Since our genre was thriller based, we chose to use a slightly old looking building which was based in a spacious area. The old building gave connotations of past victorians times.

In our filming we had several shots of a character over looking the white blacony shown above. One of the shots included a panning shot of the character overlooking the field equipped with a pair of binoculers. Another shot was a medium close up of the character contently watching, which was followed by a close up of the character realising something which remains ambigious to the audience.















The building overlooked a park and a somewhat spacious field; this was benificial for us as we chose to have a park in our scene. The panning shot we took was of the character overlooking the park therefore the park was bound to be in the shot. However, we agreed within the group that if the park didn't look essential in the sequence, we would edit it in Edit cut pro software and develop a more of a field as opposed to a park.

However, seen as though we filmed two seperate sequences, these pictures are based upon our first location. We keep the somewhat same style but the house and enviroment we used createed an even more eerie atmosphere.

Our second location was in the extremely rural area of lyme. It had very spacious fields which we used to create the notion that there was an extremely anxious girl left alone. We used a longshot as she was walking steadily across the field. At this point the reader was left ambigious to the fact that she was either being followed by anothe character or her own mindset was playing tricks on her.


Another aspect of the location was the house in which we used. It was a very large cottage looking house named Boothbank cottage The house was equipped with a securely closed gate which had the sign "Guard Dogs-Beware" promidently labbelled on the gate. The use of this quiet, reserved house and locked gate created a feeling that the anxious girl was closed off from any form of saviour from what she was being chased by.

Initial Shot List (Take Two) After developing our first initial shot list and shooting the shots, it became apparant that the shots did not thuruly fit together which led us to develop a second shot list in order to create another opening sequence. We chose to do this as our first opening sequence failed to meet our expectations of what we wished to achieve. However, we did keep certain aspects the same- for example: the genre remained a thriller and we chose to keep certain shots. ie- tracking shot of scenery and close up of moving feet.

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  Title "Pefect Pictures presents"








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  Titlte of the film upon black backgroud








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  Panning out shot from biblical picture - lands in a medium shot of girl sat in front of it








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  Long shot of girl walking from being seated down the stairs








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  Girl gets half way and phone rings - Medium shot of girl answering phone








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  Over the shoulder shot of phone showing "Unknown Number"








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  Resumed medium shot of girl speaking on phone








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  Medium shot of girl walking down stairs








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  Medium close up of girl opening and walking through chapel door








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  Long shot of girl walking towards alter








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  Establishing shot which opens followed by extreme long shot of the scenery & girl approaching








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  Long shot from behind girl heading to stye/stepping stones (still showing the surrounding scenery)








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  Close up of girls feet stepping onto stepping stone/stye








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  Over the shoulder medium shot showing house and gate in background, girl heading towards road/house








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  Over the shoulder long shot showing girl waving/shouting for help from the car








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  Over the shoulder long shot opposite way showing car driving off








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  Extreme close up of girl crying for help








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  Medium close up of "Boothbank Cottage" sign, also showing girls shadow hovering over








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  Insert shot of "Boothbank Cottage" sign








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  Medium shot of girl walking to gate








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  Continued medium shot of girl trying to open gate








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  Worms eye view of girls foot begginging to climb over fence








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  Medium shot of girl over fence








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  Long shot of girl walking to house to gain help








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  Close up of girl knocking on house door








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  Tracking Shot of girl walking away from house door








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  Long shot of girl walking towards girl #2 standing by horse








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  Close up of girl requesting help from girl #2

Production Treatment for Main Task & Planning

We made sure that the planning of our production was accurate therefore we even checked the weather, fortunatly for us we had unusual sun. This really benefited as we had no struggle in keeping everything dry, ie: equipment etc. However on the contary the rain could have infact made out production appear more earie and mysteriouse due to it being a thriller.

The opening of a short thriller based film.

Duration - The length of the film is 2minutes.

Audience - Since our sequence is of thriller genre our audience would tend to be people who enjoy getting a thrill out of specific movies. As thriller movies tend to contain great suspense it would not appeal to middle aged woman who like calm romantic comedy's, as these genres contrast immensely. Our film also contains psychological elements which requires the order to make a somewhat psychlogical anaylysis. This could compare to the 2006 mystery thriller "The Da Vinici Code." Such elements are expressed through the protaganist getting flash backs from his past. They remain ambigious to the audience until a title actually informs them that "[his] past will always haunt [him]". The gender of our audience cannot be generalized because from my research (a questionnaire) both females and males enjoy thriller films. The age of our target audience would range from 15 + since the content of our film may be considered too psychologically disturbing for a younger person to comprehend.

Resume- An overall outline of our opening sequence begins firstly with a book placed upon an old table, the book is closed but is soon opened by a hand which is wearing a black leather glove. The owner of the hand is unknown at this point and there is no way of knowing whether they are male or female. As the book is opened the pages flicker until it falls onto another open page which consists of old cut out newspaper headings and slightly obscure photos. The presentation of a wall covered in the same newspaper headings and the previously mentioned photos is now presented. The wall is in a dark room, meaning the newspaper headings and photos are only just visible. A window is positioned next to the distinct wall. The owner of the previously mentioned hand is standing in front of the window holding a polaroid camera. The gender of the person remains unknown as their face is not shown. They are dressed in a bulky black coat which also confounds the audience as to whether they are male or female. The polaroid camera is directed towards a young girl playing with her bike, this can be seen by looking out of the window. The young girl rides off with her bike and is followed by the unknown character. As she is riding off she drops her bracelet which is then slyly picked up and handled by the anonymous person.

Suggested Elements-
Costume

Black gloves/Black duffel coat to disguise the protagonists identity.

• Red brogues to make the audience distinctly remember such shoes - associating them with the anonymous character.





• A girlie outfit to insinuate vulnerability and innocence of the little girl.

Props -

• A polaroid camera which the anonymous character uses to take bizarre photos.





• A child's bike





• A girls bracelet





• Old cut out newspaper headlines





• Old photos which are placed onto a wall covered in newspaper headlines

Key Locations -

• A house which overlooks a park





• A child's park





• A big house consisting of a large window

Recording Days- As a group we intend to spend three of our media lessons filming, these lessons are based on a Monday afternoon and a Wednesday morning, this would equate to three hours filming. We are fully aware that this sort of filming task requires effort and commitment from each member of the group, therefore we have decided that we may have to work outside of our normal lesson time. e.g- after college hours or weekends. We have also allocated time for the post production which includes the editing and insertion of transitions, along with various other features such as special effects. We have estimated this to take no longer than four lessons which equals to four hours.

Initial Shot List

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  Medium shot of a book whereby the pages are flicking, until it opens on a page

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  Black titles showing names of people involved

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  Sprinkled effect leading into next shot
  

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  Close up of the page it landed on, which consists of images of children

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  Slowly pulling out of the close up shot into a long shot, revealing the mans hand placed on the book, trailing his fingers over the images

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  Pan Shot moving towards a wall of disturbing images then continuing until the pan shot reaches a window

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  Over the shoulder shot of the man taking a picture out of the window – through the window we see a young girl with her bike

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  Zoom into the young girl playing with her bike and dropping her bracelet

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  Close up of bracelet and mans hand reaching for the bracelet

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  Pulling out of the close up – starting at feet panning upwards to show his hand holding the bracelet

Opening sequence -

After analyzing the opening sequence of Silence of the Lambs, we took it upon ourselves to look at another specific opening sequence. The sequence we chose to analyze further was the opening of "Se7en" which is of thriller genre; also containing horror and neo-noir elements. The sequence consisted of 70 close ups of disturbing pictures such as murder victims and murder weapons, this delivered an eerie atmosphere which also set the tone and delivered a horrific experience.











We benefited greatly from looking at this opening sequence as we wanted to base our main task on the style of Se7en. We was firstly shown a close up of a book while the pages were flicking, that was followed by a blank black background that delivered certain credits such as the names of people involved. A medium birds eye view close up of a disturbing image was then shown with created a disturbing atmosphere so early on in the sequence. Non diegetic background noise is played over the shots to create a further eerie atmosphere for the audience. Certain effects were used in this sequence which we hoped to use in our main task, these effects included quickly cutting from one shot to another and a sort of blurry effect.