Final Upload of 'The Debt'

Note To Marker.

I have taken a few steps to improve the layout of the posts to make it easier to find them.

The posts contained within are comlete with tags to group the different posts together.
Tags include:
# 'Video Uploads'
# 'Evaluation Questions'
# 'Thriller Planning'
# 'Thriller Research'
# 'Preliminary Task'

I have also embeded any related videos into my posts.

Evaluation Question 7:

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

I feel that I have learnt the importance of leaving a large proportion of time aside for re-filming. If I had left myself more time for this I believe the filming would have been of a higher quality than it currently is.

The preliminary task did not work to the 180degree rule. Whereas I was more aware of this in my full product. When filming the full product I plotted the spots which I should keep the camera on and constantly thinking of this.

It also taught me to think of more than one perspective for each scene. repeating shots from different angles helped when it came to editing the clips. Taking longer shots of each part helped to create a more fluids motion through the footage when it came to editing different shots together. This is one thing that I learnt from filming and editing the preliminary task with my group.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 5:

How did you attract/address your audience?
I decided to make this in the style of a crime thriller due to the appeal of many types of media with a crime theme, such as the multitude of successfull CSI.


From the survey, and from discussions with people who fit my audience description, it was apparent that the feeling of mystery and suspense was important to them.


This is why I decided to hide the faces of two of the characters throughout the clip.


It is also the reason why I removed dialogue from between the characters, allowing the concentration to focus on the movement, in turn allowing more space for the audience to question the things happening in front of them.
As I am within the audience that I am aiming at, I was able to make added decisions whilst filming if it seemed to appeal to me more.


After asking the audiences opinion through my audience questionnaire I was able to address each of their ideas such as undisclosed character profiles and locations along with the appearance of titles and credits which didn't break the immersion of the audience during their viewing, after 77% of the people I asked believed that it would. I thought that the immersion which the audience feels is important as it adds to the empathy that the audience will feel towards the confused victim, in the events of the clip.

Evaluation Question 4:

Who would be the audience for your media product?
From the survey I completed earlier in the course, gathering answeres from older teens, I felt that they gave a fair representation of the viewing audience. Therefore I set my audience as mainly male of around 16-20 years of age.
I was also eager to choose an audience which I have the ability to relate to, as I believe this is important in understanding their perspective to a better effect.
This audience is stereotypically attaracted to violence, criminal activities and the idea of money being easy to get by ilegal means.
Therefore they are often attracted to the thriller genre.

'The Town'(2010) fits this genre and  was extremely successfull. Mainly for the violent robberies aswell as the mysterious story.

Evaluation Question 3:

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe that Studio Canal would be a suitable distributor due to their history with other smaller films with often unknown actors.

Previous films:
'The Awakening'(2011), is a horror thriller distributed by Studio Canal, with an estimated budget of £3,000,000.
'Sarah's Key'(2010) was another small film  at a budget of £10,000,000


These budgets are relatively small compared to the budget for the first of the 'Harry Potter' films; $125,000,000.


'The Awakening' received a gross profit of £669,150 which is successful for a rather unknown film, from a small producer.


This success is something I would attempt to replicate with the film I made.I think this is likely to work as there are many similarities between the smaller films they have distributed and the film that my opening sequence would belong to.
One is the number of people who worked on the editing and filming. In my film this was only me however there are many other small films who have worked with a small team, and have had their films distributed through studio canal.
It would be much more difficult to persuade a larger distributor to distribute my film.

Evaluation Question 2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
There is little recognition for social groups as each character is alone and seems rather isolated with no verbal communication. However the criminal characters are shown to be secretive with their costume hinting at attempts to remain inconspicuous throughout the meeting.


The victim, although masked by the cloth over his head, can be seen to be wearing a thick woollen sweater, blue jeans and Nike trainers.

This could possibly make the audience see him as an average middle to working class teenager. People with a lower income may be expected to have older, more out of date clothing.
The middle to working class teens of England are often seen to be a majority. This would hopefully help the audience to feel close to the victim.
With having a teenager being the victim, it is very different to the role of teenagers, in the majority of news reports; where they are usually the antagonist.

Camerawork such as the low angle shot, giving the point of view of the victim, from the boot of the vehicle towards the antagonist. This shows the victims vulnerability and mirrors the stereotypical, uneven balance of power between the criminal and the victim.

Evaluation Question 1:

Evaluation Question 1: on Prezi

Draft Edit of Thriller Title Sequence.

Planning.

In order to begin planning I had to come up with a rough idea of what i wanted to take place in the title sequence. Here is what I thought of:

1) Car arives in empty carpark.
2) The antagonist gets out of the Car and walks around to the boot of the car.
3) Captive is removed from boot and held by antagonist who looks at watch.
4) A second vehicle arives, from which, a hand beckons the antagonist.
5) 2nd driver takes a close look at the captive before handing an envelope to the antagonist.
6) The antagonist looks into the envelope checking the money inside.
7) Captive is placed in 2nd vehicle by antagonist.
8) The antagonist secretly gives a means of escape to the captive.
9) the antagonist watches as the vehicle exits.


Location:
For the location I had allready decided on a carpark nand knew of a place which would be suitable. This is because it is unlikely to be busy and is easily accessable.








Costume:
The costume for the antagonist would have to suit a potential back story. For example, someone who has somone tied up in the boot of their car is likely to be a proffesional kidnapper. Therefore, a smart appearence would help the actor to fit the part.

This is why I decided upon formal back clothing, such as:
#Smart suit trousers + belt.
#Black shoes.
#Long black jacket.





For the captive it is nessecary to show their vulnerability. This could be achieved by putting them in casual clothes i.e. jeans and t-shirt, which are ripped and stained.
For added mystery surrounding these events the identity of this captive should preobably remain concealed through the use of a cloth bag over their head.



I am planning to only see the arm of the person within the second vehichle but this is just as important. A dark jacket and gloves shows that they too, are attempting to conceal their identity. If their face is visable in the mirror an additional balaclava will be used.


 Vehicles:

The Vehicles I plan to use include a Honda Civic, for the antagonist, and a Ford Transit as the second vehicle.

Storyboard:

Audience Research

I have distributed a questionaire to various people in order to collect some audience research.
This will hopefully help me when i come to create my thriller title sequence.
 Listed below are the questions and occurance of answers in percentages.

1)How many thrillers do you watch per month?

0	11%
1-2	66 %
3-4	22%
5+	0%

2)What do you think, creates the most mysterious atmosphere at the beginning of the film?

An unknown character.	55%
An unknown location.	44%
A confusing conversation.	0%
Strange iconography.	0%

3)Do ‘large’ screen announcements ruin your immersion into the film or does it create excitement at the upcoming story?

Ruins immersion.	77%
Creates excitement.	22%

4) At what point of the opening sequence should a film title be shown.

The very beginning.	55%
Hidden within the video.	33%
Towards the end of the video	11%

5)How much do you like an opening sequence to tell you about the plot?.

A few characters.	22%
The location and a few characters.	33%
Very little.	44%

From this, I can conclude that:
# over half of the audience watch 1-2 thrillers per month.
#That most belive that an unkown character featuring in the beginning builds more atmosphere to the titles.
#That over 3/4 of thoes asked disliked larger titles.
#That most belive that the title shoulsd be at thye begining of the opening sequwence but that others belioved that the title should be blended into the video.
#And finally, that most belive that very little should be given away in the title sequence, whereas the other 55% agreed that only a few characters should be featured.

Title sequence research.

In order to gain background information on the 'Thriller' genre, I have viewed multiple films in order to explore the thriller conventions; through analysing the title sequences in detail.


Fargo(Coen Bros, 1996)

1)The titles are in uppercase and begin on the first screen, with thin black text appears on the screen.
2)It starts with a misty blue backdrop. This blue, which is later revealed to be mist, is a unique way of having a clear background to the titles as well as its value as a creator of tension.
3)Creepy orchestral  music with sharp violin tones begins.
4)After titles it cuts into the view of an oncoming car within a snow storm from the original blue backdrop. This is accompanied by a heavy drum beat.
5)A tracking shot follows the car as it travels along the road.
6)The next shot shows the car arriving within a town and passing past a illuminated bar.
7)He walks into the bar and looks around as if he does not know the surroundings. The driver remains unidentified until this point with the darkness within the car hiding him throughout earlier shots.
8)The man who enters the bar begins to talk to the guy across the table from him, who is sat beside a man who is sat with his head back, seemingly asleep. Having the two characters who were all ready there sat next each other, allows the audience to identify them as associates early into the clip.
9)The dialogue works only to show the groups in the scene and cause confusion over the man arranging the kidnapping of his own wife.

 The conversation works well, in that it adds a object of interest for the audience whilst not giving any reason why. This gives a narrative enigma, preparing the audience for the rest of the film.

Panic Room(David Fincher, 2002)

Columbia Pictures title screen. Known icon.

Super imposed titles change angle, see as 3d in the changing backdrops

*Each backdrop is of a busy city with high rise buildings.Thin lettering . All titles take up same amount of screen space*

1.       high establishing shot-Columbia pictures presents
2.       mid way up skyscrapers-a hofflund/polone production
3.       long shot of multiple towers-an indelible picture
4.       tracking shot moves across side of buildings, bringing title into shot- Jodie fostyer
5.       pan across from water tower bringing title into shot- Forest whitaker.
6.       Long shot of huge advertisements board on side of building + traffic below- Dwight Yoakam
7.       Tracking pan of side of building –Jared Leto
8.       Tracking long shot across skyline and across film title-Panic Room

*Dramatic music turns more sinister although remaining slow paced to build tension*
9.     Pan onto next building- Kristen Stewart- with the introduction of faster paced music with higher keys creating excitement.
10.   Long shot featuring street and advertisement-ann magnuson-ian buchman
11.   Closer to road with bust traffic-patrick bauchau – paul schulze.
12.   High Angle of road – casting by laray yayfield
13.   Pan across buildings- costume designer Michael Kaplan
14.   High angle shot or street- music by howard shore
15.   Shot rises up building- film editors james haygood.a.c.e – angus wall
16.   High angle is lowered – production designer Arthur max
17.    Low angle of building- director of photography-conrad w.hall- darius knondji a.s.d.a.f.c.
18.   Tracking shot produced by gavin polone-judy hofflund-david koepp-cean chaffin
19.   Low angle shot –written by david koepp
20.   Shot of green grassed park fields with many groups of people seated upon it with a treeline of Autumn coloured    trees in the distance separating it from the city-directed by david fincher

Speech starts on park shot  and continues over a busy pavement where two people walk towards the camera talking.

Woman: “I wrote it all down 4200sq ft,4 floors, perfect,courtyard and backside facing the garden”

Teenager: “Shouldn’t we just wait for the car service”

Woman: “no”

This works well with the calm yet enticing titles being abruptly cut with the conversation.
This contrast is made stronger with the confusing topic of the conversation creating a narrative enigma.

Dexter is NOT a movie and instead is a TV series. However, the outstanding opening sequence makes it something to aspire to.

Dexter(2006)

1)Black screen, central thin writing in white – Showtime presents
2)Close-up of man’s face resting on pillow
3)He swings hand across arm in foreground knocking bug off arm and opens eyes, awake
4)Faded tea stained edged paper with light shining bright through the centre and red capital lettered writing- DEXTER with blood splats and smudges.
5)Out of focus view over the shoulder of someone looking art the mirror, bottom left of the screen is red title-Michael c. hall
6)Closeup of man shaving under his chin from his throat.-centre screen-jennifer carpenter
7)Closeup of out of focus hand with small smudges of blood on first finger shot of plughole on left half of screen-text bottom left –Erik king
8)Blood drop lands on right hand side close up of section between plug and blood drop
9)Second blood drop joins onto it –camera shakes- lauren velez
10)Blood soaks across white tissue, from right to left towards- david zayas in bottom left
11)Blade slices though raw meat in a close up
12)Shot shifts in even closer and title appears top left- and james remar
13)Out of focus saucepan with titles appearing top left- developed for television by james manos jr
14)Mid shot of saucepan with meat being dropped into pan
15)Closeup of meat being moved in pan by cooking implement
16)Closeup of brown bubbling fat along edge of meat strip
17)Clean metal surface with titles at bottom left- main title theme by rolfe kent
18)Egg lands onto surface from above and splats onto surface
19)Closeup of egg from above being cut into with knife,held by fork, right first finger visible- title top left- music by Daniel light
20)Knife and fork laid on plate with red blob falling onto knife-title right middle-productions designer brady alexander
21)Coffee granules falling into clear cylinder with water being added-
22)Close up of Bubbles
23)Knife cutting orange- 'director of photography Romeo tirone'
24)Orange being squeezed-'produced it Robert Lloyd lewis'
25)String being tied around finger-'consulting producer Melissa Rosenberg'
26)Floss around both first fingers moves towards camera which is above-'co-executiuve producer Daniel Corone'
27)Close up of neck with bottom of hands moving up and down into shot and out.
28)Closeup of converse shoes being laced up- 'executive producer Clyde Phillips'
29)Black jacket zipped up over white shirt
30)The person now in full view of camera walks to left looking in the cameras direction
31)He nods at the camera in acknowledgement
32)Screen goes black.

Preliminary Task final version

Once the storyline had been agreed upon, I began drawing the storyboard which Tom then annotated.
 The shots chosen, such as the close-ups and over the shoulder shots were chosen to show the emotion on the faces of the characters at the giving and recieving of this news.

Preliminary Task-Planning

For my preliminary task I am working with: Matt Peal, Chris Vaites and Thomas Hogan.

In our first session we have planned our work through the use of a mind map.(below)

The story is of a pregnant girl, approaching the unknowing father and telling him the news of the pregnancy.

The first draft of the script has been begun, however this is open to improvements and continuations if nessecary.

Script:

-Girl walks up to door and enters main room, before sitting besides the boy-

Girl: I'm goong to get right to it.

Boy: What?

Girl: I'm Pregnant.

-Boy looks away before responding-

Boy:Who's is it?

Girl: Why else would i be here?

-Boy looks away again, this time sighing-

Boy: I thought you were on the pill.

Girl: I lied.

-Boy is fustrated and leaves the room-
- Girl sits looking disheartened-

Before filming, we were given some pointwers as to what to avoid and what we must include.

1. Always use a tripod for more stable shots.
2. Any cleaning of the lenses must be done with cleaning tissue.
3. Ensure shots are recorded in widescreen 16:9
4. Manual focus can be used but is not required for the preliminary.
5. Don't point the camera at the sun.
6. Take longer shots than needed.
7. Pan wider than required.
8. Walk into shot rather than starting once in shot.
9. Capture ambient sound.
10. Set the white
11. Think of the rule of thirds.