Research on similar films

Research on Similar Films

 I decided to research Submarine as the protagonist is of a similar age as our protagonist Chris. 

Submarine is a story about a teenage boy juggling to fix the problems happening around him including his parents relationship but also his own with Jordana. He seems to struggle to fit in and be "normal" which is similar to our character who instead suffers from mental health issues. Our character will be a college student and will wear clothes that typical teenagers wear which is similar to how Oliver Tate in the film is relatable because he is just a secondary school student who on the outside appears no different to anyone else. Whilst Submarine is a comedy-drama and our film will be a psychological thriller we will take the way that Submarine has made Oliver Tate relatable through his character background and code of dress and will apply it to our protagonist Chris so people will relate with him and be sympathetic to what he is going through in the film.

Evaluation Q7

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

For our preliminary task we had to film someone opening and walking through a doorway, sitting down and then have a conversation with someone else. This was so we could learn practice keeping to the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and matches on action. We had to use Final Cut Express to edit it all together so it played out smoothly without any obvious editing or cuts. This was all useful as it allowed us to practice and see what we'd learned in action and got us to grips with how to use Final Cut Express. At first we struggled with getting the match on action to look smooth and continuous so we edited the first shot so it stopped just before the action began and then the second shot so it would start then and look smooth and uninterrupted.

   We used the skills we learned in the preliminary task and then applied them when making our 2 minute film. For example we made use of matches on action. This is evident when we see Chris passing through the metal bars in the fence. This added a sense of continuity in the film and made it look professional as there were no obvious mismatches which stopped the audience from being immersed in the film. 

   We used shot reverse shot in our film when we showed Chris talking to the bloodied man. It shows their facial expressions clearly and how nervous they both look which adds to their vulnerability and thus the tension as the audience is left wondering why.

   We deliberately broke continuity in our film as it was part of the narrative. We broke continuity as we wanted to use a flashback in order to explain the events the audience had just seen.

Evaluation Q6

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

Pre-Production
  Once we had decided what idea we were going to use to make our film we started by making the script using a programme called Celtx. Celtx allows users to create a script easily as it does all the formatting for the user which helped save us time in the long run. Whilst using this programme we learnt that scripts for film making are different as the positioning of the text or the use of brackets all have different meanings than they would on any other piece of text. For example names are always capitalised. 

Once we had finalised our script we created a storyboard. This helped us visualise how our story would play out on camera and help us decide which types of shot to use depending on what we were trying to present. It also helped us save time as it kept us on task when shooting as we had decided on what shots had looked best and weren't trying other shots just to see if they'd fit in. 

After that we created a shot list. The shot list meant that when we set off to film we knew what shots we needed and when which saved us lots of time in the long run. For example, later during production at one point we had forgotten what shot was next so, using a smartphone, we accessed Blogger, where we had saved our shot list so we could all access it, and looked up what we had planned which saved us time trying to guess what was next.

 We used our shotlist along with production packs so we were prepared each day and set off knowing what we were to film which made our time management effective. This still didn't always work out for us however and we had some troubles as we found on one occasion that the battery in the camera ran out after half an hour meaning we'd traveled quite far without managing to get all the footage we had planned on getting. From that point on we always made sure to check the camera before setting off anywhere.

Production
 For filming we used a Panasonic HD camcorder. This allowed us to film in high quality and with a sharp resolution which helped capture facial expressions in closeups. We also used a tripod which helped keep our shots steady and maintain the quality. This prevented any shots from being shaky. We also used the tripod to keep the footage from being shaky when we used ice on the floor to recreate a dolly shot by gliding it across the ice.

Post Production
 Once we had finished filming we uploaded all our footage on to an Apple iMac. We had a programme called Final Cut Express installed on the iMac which allowed us to edit our footage appropriately. We found Final Cut Express easy to use and beyond the basics of cutting clips and adding transitions we also managed to do more advanced editing such as adding a crackling noise to the voice on the phone to Chris and change it's frequency which made it sound like a realistic phone call. We also changed the saturation and contrast on the clips at the beginning which made it look dreamy and odd which helped connote the feeling of something not being quite right across to the audience. Once we had finished editing we uploaded our film on to Youtube for people to view. We didn't have any trouble with post production other than occasionally forgetting to render the change in contrast but the programme would tell us when we'd done that so it was easily fixed.

Evaluation Q5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

 Our target audience is young people of either gender aged between 15 to 25 (For this reason and research on the bbfc website we gave our film a 15 age rating). They would likely lead active lifestyles due to their age and would enjoy cinema. Once we had decided on our audience we questioned people who matched up to our target audience on what they would expect and like to see in our film.

Due to our research and our target audience we decided to make our protagonist a young teenager themself in order to make them relatable and therefore more appealing to our audience. We used an actor who was a teenager themselves so our Chris character looked realistic which we reinforced through his code of dress. We had the character dress in trendy clothes that a teenager would wear these days.

We then showed our film once completed to a few people who matched our target audience. All of them said that the Chris character was relatable and looked like a modern day teenager. The majority said that the settings looked "scary" and found the film to be tense and suitable for the psychological thriller genre. One person however said that the characters dialogue was unrealistic and that transition from the woodland area to the worksite seemed too sudden and unrealistic. In the future we would research more into dialogue used in psychological thrillers so it sounds more natural and realistic rather than forced. We would also consider looking at using transitions in order to make the transition from each setting more smooth. 

Evaluation Q4

Evaluation Q3

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WNAUuWAZO5RDRzU5-4MxMpSDL2pE8pXxbKLWpyKfdYo/edit?usp=sharing

Evaluation Q2

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

 Our film challenges many stereotypes of particular social groups through the use of cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing. 

 Throughout the 2 minute clip of our film we represent teenager and young adults as being vulnerable and also subvert gender stereotypes as they are all male and are being represented in this way . Chris is wearing clothes such as a shirt and tracksuit bottoms which is stereotypical of a teenager. This adds to the realism of the film which helps add tension. The man on the floor has fake blood on him which shows he is in danger and in need of help. Chris' dialogue throughout the clip consists of him asking for help and screaming which connotes his vulnerability. Also throughout the clip we used high angle shots to reinforce Chris' vulnerability. We also used a high angle shot on the bloodied up young adult to show he is vulnerable too. We also used paced editing as Chris is running away to add to the tension and reinforce Chris' vulnerability. The effect of everything above represents young people as being vulnerable. Also, often in the media, men are represented as being tough and brave whilst in our film our use of cinematography, sound, mis-en-scene and editing represent them as being weak and vulnerable. 

 Whilst there is no women at the beginning we planned on introducing female characters later on in the film through the role of care workers which is a stereotypically female job as women are stereotypically caring.

Evaluation Q1

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

We created our film to be a psychological thriller. Often psychological thrillers, such as The Shining, the antagonist starts out sane but as the story progresses something about the location or an event causes them to lose their sanity and become more dangerous to the protagonists. Our film conforms to this convention as our character Chris is traumatized by an event which causes him to lose his grip on reality. Our film, however, challenges the normal conventions of psychological thrillers as our character Chris is also the protagonist. 

Our narrative also subverts the genre conventions of psychological thrillers as our film starts by showing what is happening to our protagonist later on the film before a flashback starts the story back at the beginning so the audience can see what or who our protagonist is running away from.

Based on our research of the film Eden Lake, a psychological thriller, we decided to use the setting of a lake surrounded by woodland. The woodland and lake connote danger to the audience as there are plenty of places where danger could be lurking unseen. We also used the setting of an abandoned worksite. The large open area connotes vulnerability as the audience sees Chris is all alone with nobody to help him. Our final setting is that of a care home which also has connotations of vulnerability as our character Chris is obviously unable to look after himself which would make the audience sympathetic as they've just seen what he's gone through before the flashback. 

 In the first 2 minutes of our film we conformed to the genre conventions of psychological thrillers through our use of sound. We included the diegetic sound of waves at the beginning to keep our film realistic and to make the audience think about water as that is a theme throughout our film. We also used non-diegetic sound in the form of piano music playing in the background. The music builds up slowly which adds to the tension as the audience tries to work out who or what is after our protagonist. Another example of non-diegetic sound we used which conforms to genre stereotypes was a high pitched static sound. This signified a change from present time to the flashback. We also used a voice-over to help establish the narrative.
  
   Psychological thriller films often use a mixture of different types of shots in order to build tension. We used this in our film for the same effect. For example we used dolly shots to make the audience focus on the fear on Chris' face. We also used high angle shots on the bloodied up man to connote his vulnerability as he asks for help.

 We also used props through the use of fake blood. This is a typical genre convention of psychological thrillers as blood connotes danger and in the instance of our film, leaves the audience wondering what caused it thus adding to the tension.