Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Pre Production
During the pre production of creating our thriller film, we were able to use technologies to help our group construct a plan for what our film was going to be about and how we could potentially carry out the task of filming the planned thriller. One example of this was Youtube.com. Youtube allowed us to view different examples of media products such as Kill Bill, Se7en and The Disappearance of Alice Creed which were influential in the way that we planned and eventually constructed out thriller piece. It also gave us the ability to research different tutorials and lessons on Youtube about different techniques for filming and sometimes even including ways that we could create our own thriller pieces based off of the work of directors who have made similar films and used intelligent and interesting techniques.




Another technology that was very helpful in the pre production process was Blogspot.com. Our school, City of Norwich School/CNS has its own blogspot page. On this page are numerous helpful videos and documents on not only how to use blogspot but also tips and ideas based off of the topics that we are studying, making the CNS blogspot page a very resourceful technology. Also, having our own individual blogspot pages as students was very beneficial too. We are able to convey our own work and ideas which our teachers can check and give tips on what ideas are good or what could be improved upon. Also as individual students, we are able to check each others blogspot pages which allows us to share and generate new ideas from outside of the classroom. We can also use it to research work from older and previous media students who may have done exceptionally well, which allows me and the other students to create and forward our own and new ideas based on the topics we are studying.

Production
During production, we are very fortunate to have modern technologies for us to film with. We used a Canon Legria HFR406 video camera, with HD recording quality and 32x optical zoom to film our thriller piece. However filming the same film 50 years ago would have been a completely different. We would not have the accessibility and portability of a digital camera 50 years ago, and we wouldn't have the convenience of storing all our footage on an SD card which we could plug into a computer and save onto the computer. Instead we would have had to have rolls of film, and make sure that we filmed each shot perfectly as buying numerous rolls of film would be very expensive. We would also have to go through the difficulty and risk of processing the film rolls, and if there was a problem with one of the shots in the film or the film roll did not process properly, we would have had to reshoot the entire film. However, with any shots we thought we could improve in our thriller piece, we could have reshot then and there with far less hassle and trouble.

We also used the improved technology of tripods to help in our filming. Filming any shot with any camera free hand is very risky as it is almost certain to show the slight shaking of the person holding the camera which largely reduces the quality of the shot unless if the shot is purposefully shaken to add the effect of chaos. So for majority, or if not, all the shots that we filmed were shot with the camera attached to the top of the tripod. This allowed us to shoot the shots we wanted without worrying about the risk of the camera shaking. Tripods, like modern cameras, have also developed since perhaps 50 years ago. The tripod that we used was able to fold in on itself making it smaller and more portable and the legs are able to unclip from inside each other meaning that we can increase or decrease the length of the legs of the tripod. By decreasing the leg length and folding the tripod in on itself, as shown in the image on the left, it allows the tripod to become far more accessible and portable so filming can take place in more locations in which maybe a tripod from 50 years ago which may not fold in on itself on has the ability to increase or decrease its leg length would not be able to reach sheerly because carrying it or getting it to the location would be too difficult. The changes in modern day filming equipment means that almost anyone can create a film since the equipment is so advanced comparing to what it used to be.

Post Production

Once we had got all the footage we needed on the SD card that we used for filming, we saved our footage onto a designated computer at our school and used an editing programme called Premiere Pro on the computer, shown on the left. By using Premiere Pro we were able to cut out parts of shots that may not have been needed or we could correct any errors in the angling of the camera from filming by adjusting the angle of the shot. We were also able to add title cards, text, text transtions and non-diegetic soundtracks to our piece to create a more professional sound and look to our film. Since we did not have the trouble of waiting for film to process and we could add in texts and soundtracks easily over the top of the shots instead of placed in or after them like they might have been perhaps 50 years ago. All of the editing techniques and benefits from it, I learnt during the process of editing and during the classroom during the same time period, showing that how new technologies have helped me to understand filming and to be able to film and edit confidently. 

Another form of technology that I have learnt about is a website called freesound.com. This website allows you to download backing soundtracks which you can use for your films or own home made videos. I used freesound.com to download the heartbeat soundtrack and the rising pitch music soundtrack which was then used in our thriller piece itself. Finding this new technology made adding a soundtrack to our film very easy and we could simply add the downloaded file into our film on Premiere Pro instead of having to go through similar troubles of adding  non-diegetic soundtracks in filming 50 years ago. The technology also helped in creating the connotations and the conventions of our subgenre as the music we downloaded was full of suspense and tension.

Another website and new technology that we used was dafont.com, which allowed us to search for different fonts that we could use in our film based off of the genre of film that we were creating. This was incredibly helpful as we did not have to search through endless lists of different fonts in alphabetical order to find the right font that would suit the genre and subgenre of our film. The website also allowed us to compare numerous fonts that would all suit the genre of our film so we could decide which one we thought was the most effective. 

I have learnt a lot of things from new and modern technologies which are based around the purpose of film making but to summarise it generally, the new technologies that I have listed above allowed me and the people I was working with to create a very well constructed and professional looking film which would most likely not be the case if I had made the same film before I started my Media A-level.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

One way that we thought would be a successful way to entice and attract audiences to watch our film was through the increasing tension and build of disorientation as the film continues. Typically, as the film goes on you would suspect less questions and more answers, however in our piece it is not the same. As the film continues, more questions are left unanswered such as: What was in the duffel bag? What is the purpose of the pictures on the wall? What is the non-diegetic music and heartbeat track building to? Who is this character? What are his motives? The increasing amount of questions that are left unanswered and allowing the audience to speculate the answers themselves makes the sudden and abrupt ending to the opening enforces the convention of thrill and fear that is generated through not only thriller films but crime thriller films as well.

The way that we attempted to make the audience identify with the main character is through the casting of a young adult so that the audience are able to position themselves in the characters position and consider how they might act and react to being in the similar situations that the character has been put into. On the contrary to this thought, the audience would have difficulty identifying with the character from the obvious presence of psychological issues being a major factor in the way he acts and the way he thinks. The majority of people do not have to deal and cope with any major psychological issues, therefore they would find it very hard to really see and feel how the character in our thriller feels about his problems and also very hard to relate to. However, if this is the case this could entice viewers to carry on watching as since they do not know how someone in the characters position may act, this becomes very intriguing to the audience making for a better film.

However, identifying is not the same as positioning. Since we know so little  about who the character is, what he is doing and why he is doing what he is doing, we find that in no real way we are actually positioned with him and set to like this character. On the other hand, does he do anything to make us as an audience dislike him? No, he doesn't. So the audience is placed in a mutual respect of the character due to the lack of information given about his character. However, since we see the character clearly struggling with the psychological issues that are daunting him, we do feel a slight sense of sympathy towards the character because of the clear pain and turmoil that he is in; features which are very common in thriller films for possible characters which are one of the "good guys". Despite this it is still very hard for the audience to fully position themselves with the audience due to the sincere lack of information given about the character.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

There are 6 main film distributors across the world that dominate cinema viewings, due to their wealth and power. These 6 companies are called, as a group, The Big 6. As individual firms, they consist of 6 different companies, being:

• Paramount 
• Warner Brothers Studios
• Walt Disney 
• Twentieth Century Fox 
• Columbus
• Universal

These 6 firms specialise in distributing blockbuster and world release films that contain lots of talented A-list actors and actresses, talented film and editing crews so that they can generate a lot of money from viewings. The genre of the film also comes into account for The Big 6, as different genres are more or less likely to generate more money. For example, an action blockbuster movie is more likely to generate more money than a romantic arthouse movie as more people are likely to pay to see the action blockbuster movie. Its is possible that one of The Big 6 would distribute the thriller film that we made, as despite not having any A-list actors and/or actresses in it the genre is suited to generate more money from viewings as it is a thriller film. Therefore people are more likely to pay to see our thriller film as they want the thrill and experience that comes from watching a thriller film.

However, I believe that a Big 6 distributor firm would not be best suited for distributing our film due to the lack of popularity in renounce in the actors used in the film and the crew behind creating the film was not a world class crew meaning it is less likely to succeed as a blockbuster film, and the lack of a budget.
Therefore I think a studio such as Vertigo would be more suited towards distributing our film.  Vertigo is a small UK based distributor that outsources small films based in the UK that are produced on a lower budget. The film Outlaw was also distributed by Vertigo and it offers the same connotations of disorientation, enigma and somewhat corruption that our own thriller piece offers as well. Outlaw is also set in Britain and was produced in Britain, again showing similarities between our own thriller and Outlaw.
Another distributor film that could potentially distribute our film is CinemaNX. CinemaNX was the distribution firm that outsourced The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a film that is very similar to our own in the way that it connotes evil and illusion and the target audience that is identified. Also since we took influence in creating our film based off of The Disappearance of Alice Creed, using the same distributor would make sense.

Question 2: How does your thriller film opening represent particular social groups?

In our thriller opening we focus on a male detective as our main and only social group, who is presumed to be in the age of 40 to 50 years old.  We took a lot of inspiration and influence from the movie Se7en and so based our character very similarly to Detective Somerset: a male detective presumed to be in his older ages as he is retiring at the end of the film. Since we took a lot of influence from Se7en itself, we followed this again with the way we represented the social class we were focusing on which was primarily mise-en-scene. The suit costume is the common factor of similarity between the detective in our own piece and detective Somerset in Se7en.

Detective Somerset

The suits themselves show the audience the representation of power and authority but not a corrupt and unjust possession of power that a suit may sometimes connote.

Detective "Furnace"

• As for the gender differences in our own piece, we did not include any women characters in the opening illustrating their marginalisation as a gender. This marginalisation of woman could connote that women are inferior to men and that women should not partake in detective roles as it can be dangerous and tough work which should be left to do by the men. However, both the detectives in Se7en and our own piece lack a female support in their lives, and the detective in our own piece has a psychological breakdown for reasons unknown. But it could be his loneliness. Detective Somerset doesn't have a breakdown but he does have a clear abundance of loneliness and singularity. Therefore it could be that the lack of women in our opening and in Se7en doesn't show a weakness in women but more the power that they have and how they contribute to the world.

Question 4: Who would be the target audience for your thriller task?

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

Thriller final cut